Christmas 2018

A message from Fr. Chris this Christmas season ...

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

As we approach the fourth Sunday of Advent and stand on the brink of Christmas, our Advent journey brings us into contact with two expectant mothers, one old, one young.
Elizabeth is six months along; Mary, is newly pregnant. The moment Elizabeth is greeted by Mary, the effect is so powerful that her unborn child, John the Baptist, jumps for joy.  This prompts Elizabeth to pronounce a joyful blessing on Mary. ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb’. It is in this exchange that we are reminded that Jesus, like us, began his life journey as a tiny, bundle of cells.
And yet He is also like no other. John’s Gospel tell us that this tiny bundle of cells was “the Word became flesh” and that the Word was always there, a beautiful powerful divine energy. God-Who-Is-Word decided that to understand how magnificently loving and caring God-Who-Is-Word truly is, He would send Himself to earth as God-Who-Is-Word, but also God who is Human. Jesus is the bridge by which God comes to earth and people come to heaven.  
God enacts His plan, not outside or even over and against human history but through it. The mode and announcement of his plan reveals Who God is. It is therefore no coincidence that the announcement of Jesus’s birth is made first to shepherds living in the fields. Shepherding was a profession most likely to be filled from the bottom rung of the social ladder, by persons who could not find what was regarded as decent work. Society stereotyped shepherds as liars, degenerates, and thieves. The testimony of shepherds was not admissible in court, and many towns had ordinances barring shepherds from their city limits. The religious establishment took a particularly dim view of shepherds since the regular exercise of shepherds' duties kept them from observing the Sabbath and rendered them ritually unclean. Shepherds were classed with tax collectors and prostitutes, persons who were "sinners" by virtue of their vocation.           
In sending angels to shepherds God demonstrates that He came in Jesus for every single one of us, including the very worst of sinners, including those of us who have given up on God and given up on themselves.   
If we allow it, whoever we are, whatever the circumstances of our lives, irrespective of how far we may have fallen, the incarnation can become a present reality in our lives and it alone holds the promise of new life.  Of the incarnate Word, John declares, “to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives power to become children of God, who are born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”
Christ still comes into this world.  Christmas still happens. It didn't just happen once, it happens all the time. When the Word became flesh—when God joined himself to humanity—he did so not simply as a gesture of love but as a universal invitation. The real gift of the incarnation is that through the Word-become-flesh God offers us the possibility of becoming his sons and daughters. We, who would always be outsider, are invited into His intimate love.
If we respond, this small baby, the very baby that made John the Baptist leap with joy, will fill our whole world and take us with Him in life, through death and into all eternity.
Christmas has this invitation at its very heart. So when Christmas day comes, we will do well to remember and proclaim that the most valuable gift came to us over two thousand years ago. A baby not gift-wrapped but aglow with the energy that is the Word made flesh and which has the power to redeem us.
This is the gift, the Word made flesh who dwells among us, and surrounds us with glory.  There can be no better news than this.  This is the Christmas Gospel.