Merry Christmas! May everyone you love be filled with Christmas joy.
On that first night we call “O Holy Night,” something happened that altered the human race. In some very mysterious way God took on humanity. God, the undivided, incomprehensible and inexpressible One, mingled with proud, petulant, passionate humanity. God enclosed this mix of divinity and humanity in one small body, the body of a baby. Mysteriously, the all too human mingled with the divine and was not vaporized by this union.
Now, as a result of this birth of God made man, being human is forever altered, for those who believe in Him.
How is being human altered by this blend of the human with the divine?
Aside from the well-known benefits of this human and divine fusion, namely the forgiveness of our sins and the opening of the gates of heaven, there are three gifts that God gives to those who believe in the Incarnation: grace; the meaningfulness of suffering, and the close presence of God.
One gift is grace. God reveals to us in Jesus the relationship we have with Him that we call grace. When we are in the state of sanctifying grace we are in a habitual, stable friendship with God, and we have a supernatural disposition to live with God and to act by His love. God is never far from our thoughts. God is very real and this gift of grace keeps us desiring ever closer union with God.
We can indeed harm this state of grace by sin, but the relationship is so strong that sooner or later we desire to be made right with God and can do that so easily in the sacrament of penance. “The Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save it.” No wonder this saving grace is called amazing grace.
A second gift is the meaningfulness of suffering. If God can lie down in a cattle trough, can humiliation be so terrible? If this newborn King of the Jews can be crucified for the very same title, can we not re-examine how we deal with the pain of being human, and with suffering caused by injustice?
Oh, this savior that has been born to us indeed saves of us from seeing the difficult parts of being human as absurdities. He saves us from meaninglessness, and from despair in the face of extreme suffering. Yes, this babe in the manger shows us that all suffering is redemptive. He grows up to be the absolutely innocent one who takes on our torments so that we will never again have to face life as a farce, so that we need never become cynical and scornful of the precious gift of being human.
And lastly, the third gift: this Word that was made flesh, the Incarnate Word of God, gives us human beings unparalleled access to God. This close presence of God, especially in the Eucharist, but also in our payer and in our reading of His Word, means that we are never alone. We have no need to be lonely, confused, deserted, abandoned - if we but have faith in the truth revealed to us this night.
If a peasant girl can become the Mother of God, is any life safe from the invasion of the eternal?
[Inspiration and phrases came from “A Christmas Prayer” by Ian Oliver, pastor of
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