Sister Elise Saggau, OSF
Christmas is upon us—the day we remember, in song, feasting, and celebration, that God came among us precisely as one of us! It is also the day we remember that the coming of our God is always happening to us. We believe it to be true in small ways and in great ways, in ways we understand and in ways we do not understand. Christmas reminds us that, as we respond to the movements of grace in our lives, we become more like the creature God dreamed of at the beginning of creation. As the years go by, God intends that we become ever more like the human being God had in mind when Jesus Christ came among us as one of us.
When we pray: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” we are also praying that, with each passing day, we may become clearer and clearer reflections of that life-giving Word. Advent and Christmas are times drenched in grace like dew that covers the earth on a cool summer morning, like rain that falls on parched ground. This life-giving grace is always accessible to us. We yearn for it as part of our very being. It is the source of our hope.
Christmas is now upon us, and we once more remember the privileged moment when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We will never get to the bottom of this incredible reality. No matter how hard we try, whether through study or contemplation, the truth that God wants to be among us as one of us will always be too much for us. And the wonderful thing is, we do not have to understand it; we have only to accept that God should mysteriously love us so. We must receive this mystery in active faith and live out its implications as best we can. We must realize that we have a brother that accompanies us on this amazing adventure of life upon Earth and brings it to fruition.
We are moved at the very thought of God’s complete surrender to the human situation as a helpless infant. God in Christ was totally dependent, totally in need—just like we are. And for God in Christ these needs were met lovingly by a poor mother and a poor father. Today the world is full of such mothers, such fathers, and such children. Before the incredible mystery of the Word-Made-Flesh, we pray that our own lives be transformed into instruments of compassion, as we take our place in this marvelous story for our own times.
Christmas is not just an entertaining and sentimental reenactment of something lovely that happened 2000 years ago. The celebration of Christmas releases spiritual power on the earth today. It recognizes that every child born is a manifestation of the God of life among us. It reminds us that every poor child and every poor mother and every poor father is a call to us to share the compassion of our God. It reminds us that every human being killed in a senseless war or dying through sheer human neglect is someone’s child—someone’s son or daughter.
Let us, then, take some little quiet time to contemplate, in awe and wonder, the mystery of God and the mystery of ourselves. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is not just something that happened over two thousand years ago. It continues to happen. Jesus Christ continues to take place—in all our lives and in in every single particle of Creation. We accept our lives, once again then, as Christmas gifts. Deo gratias!
