Sunday in Octave of Christmas 30.12.18 The Incarnation
We unfold the Christmas mystery. The word was made flesh and
dwelt among us.
We try to deepen our understanding of this mystery.
If we had been born before Christ became man, and someone
said this is going to happen – that God will become man, we would probably have
ridiculed the idea. Gods do not do that sort of thing.
But the real God did do exactly that. And then would die for
us.
Some say that God is unfeeling and cruel, but look what He has
done. He made us out of nothing to share
in His infinite glory; and in doing that is giving us a privilege beyond
anything we could possibly deserve, or even dream of asking for.
We would have been happy just with ‘give us our daily bread’,
and then leave us alone – like contented slaves or employees.
That He would come down that far, and dwell with us, to
teach us what we can be, what we are called to be; to help us to do that by His
grace and mercy, to inspire us with vision far beyond the everyday, the
mundane. All this He has done.
We walk about in a world where God has become one of us. This
is such a dramatic claim in itself; it takes a lot of absorbing.
But also amazing is that most of the human race either does
not believe that truth, or does not think it is important.
People anxious not to know the truth have regressed into
pre-Christian beliefs: there is some sort of deity out there somewhere, about
whom we can know almost nothing.
They completely ignore that the same God has come all the way
in from ‘out there’, has taught and showed us, and done all these things that
have been recorded.
So how can we say we don’t know anything about Him? We have much
information, which we can draw on anytime.
When we suffer – which is the most challenging time – we can
make contact with Him, calling on His grace to help us cope, and overcome. We
may not understand why He permits certain sufferings, but we come to trust Him
for His own sake. This is Someone who has joined Himself to my nature. He must
be interested in what happens to me. I cannot think He is unfeeling.
We go about our daily tasks, and we might look the same as
the unbelievers as far as appearance goes, but we are lit up by an interior joy
that all of this does lead somewhere.
We are not just like insects following each other until we
fall over dead.
We are called to so much more than that, to eternal life, to
be better, to respond to God and give Him that infinite yearning we have within
us; and really be lifted up out of ourselves as the flesh shares in the Word.
Being human we have a choice which way we look – up or down.
Towards Christ or away from Him – that is the question.
He came to His own and they knew him not. We will rewrite
that part of history. We shall know Him.
We never think that God can be tied down to our definitions.
We let Him lift us to His world rather than try to fit Him into our world.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Come, let us
adore Him.
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