Several years ago on
Christmas day after I had celebrated the two morning masses, I went to visit
some friends, took a short walk and then went back to my house looking forward
to a nap as I was exhausted. When I opened the front door I was horrified to
see water pouring down through the ceiling. The pipes had burst! So I spent most of the rest of the day trying
to mop up the house. Compared to many people I know I got away lightly, but it
still did a lot of damage. However, in spite of the damage, one of the things
it made me realise was that you don’t really need very much. I still got a
Christmas dinner, I had a place to stay and I was warm enough. What more could I
ask for? We will always have inconvenience and problems, but if we have the
basics we are ok and most of us have a lot more than just the basics.
One of the
things that I find beautiful about the feast of Christmas is what the feast
says about us as human beings. God
didn’t sort everything out before He took on human flesh and came among us. He
came into all the inconvenience, injustice and chaos that is all around us all
the time and he was born into a human family with all the ups and downs that
goes with any family. Mary and Joseph were away from home because of the census
that was being taken and then Mary ended up having to give birth in a far from
ideal place: a stable or cave. It must have been very upsetting, especially for
Joseph whom I sure felt frustrated at not being able to provide a better place
for his wife to give birth to their first-born. Soon afterwards they had to
flee the country as refugees because of a death threat. There were difficulties
from the start, and yet God was happy to come right into the middle of all
that.
Perhaps what
is easiest to overlook is the significance of God taking on flesh. He didn’t take on the nature of
an animal, or of an angel, but of a human being. We are not animals, but we are
not angels either and we are not meant to be. The Word became flesh, and that tells us that we are
good as we are. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to improve, but we are
meant to be ‘flesh’. I think many of us have grown up with the idea that spirit
is good, but flesh and all to do with it is bad. However, that is not what God
teaches us; in fact, He is telling us the complete opposite by taking on human flesh.
This is how we are meant to be and not only that but in our flesh as we are, we
imitate God, especially in the way we love.
The beginning
of St. John’s Gospel, which we read on Christmas morning, tells us a few
wonderful things. It is speaking about the person of Jesus, God the Son, which
it calls the Word. It says that the eternal Word—who becomes Jesus—was there
from the beginning. God the Son has always been there. It also says that apart
from him we would not exist at all. We only have life because He is there,
which also means that our life has no meaning apart from him. Then it says a
most encouraging thing for the times that we live in. It says that Jesus (the
Word) is the Light that shines in the darkness and ‘the darkness could not overcome this light.’ In other words, no
matter what happens in the world around us, no matter how much evil there
appears to be, it will never be able to overcome Jesus, who is God. God is
stronger. God will have the last say.
In the book of
Revelation Jesus says,
I am the First
and the Last, the Living One. I was dead, but now I am to live forever and
ever. I hold the keys of death and of the underworld (Rev 1:17b-18).
All things are subject to God
and yet he was pleased to come among us as one of us, to teach us about God,
about the afterlife, about how we should live and of course to die for us. If
God was prepared to come among us in this way it means that we must have enormous
worth and value in his eyes. This also means that we are not just here by
accident, but for a definite reason.
So although
the world around us may seem to have lost its way, God is with us just as much
as ever. God doesn’t need to make it all perfect to be with us. He didn’t when
Jesus was born and He doesn’t have to now either. Instead He shows us a
different way; the way of love and the way of sacrifice, which may seem to be
insignificant, but is in fact the more powerful way. Earthly rulers need to
show how strong they are, but God does not. God is powerful enough to be able
to work quietly in the background, mostly unnoticed. ‘He came among his own and
his own didn’t recognise him.’ It didn’t matter and it still doesn’t matter,
because He is with us no matter what and He goes on teaching us no matter what.
He will continue to teach anyone who is willing to listen, that we were created
by God and at the end of our time on earth we will return to God if we are open
to it. That is the purpose of our life and the reason why we are here. For our duration
on earth, we simply do our best to follow the path that He points out to us.
‘The Word was
made flesh and lived among us.’
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