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Come, let us
adore him!
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
On the feast of the Nativity, the Church invites us to celebrate the
great event of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and to do so with joy.
Jesus was born into a family, poor by material standards, but rich in
joy. He was born in a stable, for there was no place for him in the inn
(Lk 2:7); he was placed in a manger, for there was no cradle for him; he
came into the world completely helpless, without fanfare, and yet he was
welcomed and recognized first by the shepherds, who heard from the angel
the news of his birth.
The event conceals a mystery. Theologians call it the Incarnation,
which means that for our salvation God, fully divine, became fully
human. The Nicene Creed puts it this way: “By the power of the Holy
Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.” He
did this, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches (457),
“to save us by reconciling us with God, who ‘loved us and sent his Son
as the Savior of the world.’” St. Gregory of Nyssa (395 A.D.) wrote:
“Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead,
to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary
for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary
to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help;
slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they
not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was
in so miserable and unhappy a state?”
The utter physicalness of the doctrine of the Incarnation can be
shocking. Bodies are dirty and messy; our secretions, odors, urges and
needs embarrass us; our pain and mortality frighten us. We might wish we
could flee all this, but God didn’t. The Gospel says that God
made his home in human flesh; and this is where we meet him, in Jesus
Christ, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us.
Angels announced Jesus’ birth and proclaimed glory “to God in the
highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased” (Lk 2:14).
Through the ages this song of praise has been a prayer which rises from
the hearts of those who welcome God into their lives and who are anxious
to praise him from whom all blessings flow.
“A baby is adored by the shepherds in the lowly stable at Bethlehem. He
is ‘the Savior of the world,’ ‘Christ the Lord’ (Lk 2:11). Their eyes
see a newborn child wrapped in swaddling cloths and placed in a manger
and in that ‘sign,’ thanks to the inner light of faith, they recognize
the Messiah proclaimed by the prophets.
“This is Emmanuel, God-with-us, who comes to fill the earth with grace.
He comes into the world in order to transform creation. He becomes a man
among men, so that in him and through him every person can be profoundly
renewed. By his birth he draws us all into the sphere of the divine,
granting to those who in faith open themselves to receiving his gift,
the possibility of sharing in his own divine life.
“The coming of Christ among us is the center of history, which
thereafter takes on a new dimension. God himself writes history by
entering into it. The event of the Incarnation embraces the whole of
human history, from creation until the Second Coming.” (Christmas
meditation of John Paul II).
We are invited to feed him in the hungry, to be rewarded for even a cup
of cold water given in his name, to welcome him in the strangers we
meet, to clothe him when others are naked, to care for him when we care
for those who are ill, and to find him there when we visit the
imprisoned.
When his battered and bleeding body was nailed to the cross, Jesus’ arms
were stretched out between heaven and earth in the everlasting sign of
his love for us. And in holy Communion we feast on his body broken and
his blood poured out for us.
What we must remember about Christmas is that it is true. God became one
of us in Jesus Christ. This manifests the desire of God to be part of
our lives. He has joined himself to our nature and he has done it for a
purpose. It is the forgiveness of sins and restoration of friendship
with God, which can only be done by God himself.
Christmas is more than a beautiful event of the past. It is more than a
civil holiday. It is more than parties and gifts and jingle bells,
family and children, although it is all of this. Fundamentally,
Christmas is about the reality that God has pitched his tent among us,
to dwell among us. He has attached himself to our humanity. The question
to be contemplated during the Christmas Season is whether we truly
believe this is true.
In coming among us, God did not take away our freedom. Many who saw him
and many who see his Church and the signs he has given us through the
centuries have not believed. But, the feast of the Nativity is an
invitation to believe. We have the freedom to accept that invitation or
not. To accept the invitation of the Lord is an act of faith that is
also an act of love, and it includes a promise to return to him a gift
not unlike the gift he gives to us. That true and worthy gift is our
fidelity, the priority we give God, our determination to live our
religion with enthusiasm, with an attitude of gratitude.
May your blessing this Christmas Season be a deeper awareness of the
mystery of God’s continuing presence in your daily life. May that gift
cause you to value especially and in a more profound way the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. Without Mass we Catholics are not complete.
Without Mass we fail in gratitude to the Lord Jesus who was not only
born in Bethlehem, a helpless infant, but who gave the last drops of his
blood for us.
May we, each one, become a truly Eucharistic people, a people who give
thanks to God for the wonder of life, the beauty of creation, and the
miracle of his abiding presence in the Blessed Sacrament and in love.
Christ has been born for us. Come, let us adore him! |
