Regi Mathew, OFM
What, why and when is a Christmas? This was haunting my mind as I entered the Advent. I realize it is Grace, empowered by the Spirit that leads to a re-birth.
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we read that when God made the world he was happy because it was very good. But the goodness didn’t last and the greed, selfishness, anger, jealousy brought about in time a broken world…
The stable at Bethlehem, with its infant in the arms of Mary and Joseph, was God’s Plan to repair and renew this broken world. This time around there was no grand gesture – no sun, stars, moon, all creation in harmony but a little baby to touch our hearts, calling for love, acceptance, a home in our hearts.
Word and Flesh have been looked down upon by the spiritual leaders and theologians. The Word and Flesh, according to the Christian understanding, even today, are contradictory to each other – as if one cannot accommodate the other. But Christmas is the celebration of that contradictory encounter: Word with Flesh.
The famous prologue of John’s Gospel situates the birth of Jesus against the cosmic backdrop of the birthing of the universe. The baby born in Bethlehem is the eternal Word who was with God in the beginning and through whom everything that exists came to be. Then, in simple words of awesome beauty, John captures the moment the infinite weds the finite, uniting in an historical being divine light and love: ‘The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth’ (Jn 1:15; Phil 2:6-7).
As we gaze in wonder upon the nativity scene, represented in the Christmas crib, we see the Lord of the universe as a tiny vulnerable baby totally dependent on his mother for his every need. Becoming one with us, the eternal Word became subject to the joys and pains to which all human flesh is heir: to the joy of loving parents, of friendship, of recreation and amusement, of song and dance; but also, to starvation and thirst, anguish and blues. He would come to know the joy of bringing healing, hope to the crippled, the blind, the dumb, and those living on the peripheries of society. He would experience the agony of ingratitude and rejection, including the misunderstanding of even his closest disciples. He would also know fear when faced with the hostility of those who sought to destroy him. Finally, he would endure the unspeakable agony of a shameful death on a Cross – and all this to manifest the Father’s unfailing love for us and to show us what it really means to be human.
The Christmas story recalls the birth of this unique person, the incarnate Son of God, who didn’t just tell us how to live but showed us, through his tears, sweat and blood. The Christmas story challenges us to reflect on the life of Jesus so that we enter into the immense mystery of the love of God and discover the meaning and purpose of our lives and share it with others.
Christmas is the feast of Life and we see the fullness of this life in the manger and ultimately on the Cross. Christmas is a call to us to return to the source of our faith and trust in God. if we believe Jesus is the true Light of the world, then he will lead us out of our darkness into his own wonderful light.
Christmas is Encountering those who reached nowhere in life and preparing an inn for them. Jesus incarnated in Bethlehem, the Town of Bread, in order to satisfy the poor and hungry: feed the hungry, garb the naked, pardon the guilty, welcome the uninvited, care for the ill, love your foes, and “do unto others as you would have done unto you.” Jesus is born for repentant sinners to bring back those who stepped out the Paradise.
Thus, Christmas is a feast of Love: a self-sacrificing, self-emptying, empathetic love. Christmas is not a date but a state of mind. Let us honour Christmas in our heart. Come, let’s celebrate the birth of our Saviour by encountering Him in the daily events of our life… for Christmas is Encountering.
