Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Buon Natale! Joyeux Noel! Frohe Weihnachten! A blessed and happy Christmas to all.
Each year we relive the wonderful story of Christmas: a baby in a stable; a mother holding her child in her arms, as her husband watches nearby; angels singing, shepherds running over the hillside, and so-called astrologers traveling from afar with gifts.
The Gospel according to John sums up this magnificent story: The Word became flesh.
You see, at the beginning of Genesis, the first people walked with God, had friendship with God and one another. Somehow, they lost that friendship, they fell from grace. Genesis describes in a literary genre how they hid from God; one blamed the other; and the earthly elements worked against them.
But God did not leave us to our worse selves. Remember the words of the prophet Isaiah: Can a mother forget her child?..and even if she should, I will never forget you. And so continued the story of our salvation throughout the history of ancient Israel.
In the midst of Israel’s fidelities and infidelities, God never reneged on his promises. And so, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. God is among us.
The word of God for the Christmas liturgies is like a prism, refracting the multiple facets of this great mystery of the Incarnation, God become one of us.
Isaiah proclaims glad tidings: the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
Paul writes that the grace of God appeared in Jesus Christ who made us “heirs” to the promise of eternal life.
In the Gospel, the Virgin Mary gave birth to her son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.
There’s a tradition that says the Christ Child was born in a stable. A stable is a haven for animals and a storehouse for harvests. Children find them special places of play. Stables are places where every dimension of life and death is played out: new calves are born, young chickens are nurtured, sick horses are cared for. Stables can also be untidy, even in these days of recycling and repurposing.
And yet, in the Christmas moment, God transformed a humble stable into the holiest of shrines. In many ways, our lives are like that, filled with all the joy and pain that challenge us to grow and fulfill our dreams. The Christ born in Bethlehem came to bring light and life and love to each one of us. And if God could be born in such a place, that same God can be born in us. And that’s what Christmas is all about—God within each one of us.
Now back to Christmas and the Word became flesh. That reality changed us; we are new creatures; and one day God will transform us into a new kind of spiritual embodiment. Christmas means not simply God in Bethlehem centuries ago, but God within us. We carry within ourselves Emmanuel, God with us. How? Initially by virtue of the life-giving waters of baptism. For we are by grace what Jesus Christ is by nature: sons and daughters of God our Father, heirs to the kingdom of God.
Here in every mass, we encounter the living Christ, gloriously alive, in the mystery of the word, and in the mystery of the sacrament where the bread and wine become the real presence of the living Christ.
And that great truth of our faith, God within us, ought to challenge us always to be a good finder: someone who looks for the good in themselves, in other people and in every situation. And who is the ultimate good-finder? God so loved us that he became one of us in Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, this Jesus had a unique relationship with the God of ancient Israel. He is one with God; a God-man. A healer, a teacher, a peacemaker. Think of all the people in the Gospels that Jesus met. Jesus found goodness in all of them, where many people didn’t see it. The promised Messiah has come, He is in our midst sacramentally and mystically now, and He will come again in glory at the end-time.
In the meantime, we are called to be the hands and feet and eyes and ears of Jesus. And so what better season to mend a quarrel, search out a forgotten friend, lend a helping hand to someone in need, encourage someone who has lost faith,keep a promise, forget an old grudge, renew hope in someone with a word of encouragement, fight for a principle, express our gratitude, overcome an old fear, take a few minutes to appreciate nature’s beauty, tell someone you love them, and tell them again and again. Then will we truly help usher in the kingdom of God until Jesus Christ comes with great and power to transform this universe into a “new heaven and a new earth.”. Amen!
