MERRY CRISTMAS!
As I reflect upon the meaning of Christmas, I am speechless.
“How, I asked myself, am I to share any of my thoughts?” My mind seemed blank, as I sat in silent
contemplation of today’s liturgical readings. The words that came to me were: “I
adore you, O Christ, and I bless you because by your holy…[love], you have
redeemed the world.” How to imagine
that our God came into this world as a tiny, vulnerable infant--God hidden
within human nature: the infant Jesus,
the little boy Jesus, the adolescent Jesus, the man Jesus as Immanuel with us. How
awesome! Why would God, the second
person of the Blessed Trinity, ever leave heaven to come to earth, to enter our
existence and become a human being? Love and mercy beyond all telling. For all
eternity, once sin entered this world, and even before humankind turned against
God, a plan was already in place to mend a broken relationship, to restore
unity between God and humankind, to bring us back to God, from whom we
strayed. What love! What mercy! That
tiny, vulnerable baby is God come to save us, God fulfilling an eternal plan to
reconcile us, to heal us, to make us whole again, to reopen the gates to
Eternal Life. Imagine the angels, unable
to contain their joy in heaven, breaking through to earth to sing God’s praises
at Bethlehem, at every Eucharistic celebration, at every baptism, Confirmation,
Holy Communion, and celebration of
Reconciliation, at every marriage, at every Anointing of the Sick, at all
ordinations. God with us in all the ways that grace is received into our lives—a
reality that began when God becomes human like us in all things but sin so that
we, through grace, could, ultimately,
become like God in holiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment