We know the events surrounding the birth of Jesus as related in the Gospels of Saints Luke and Matthew. Rather than being stunned by the “doings” of God at the birth of the Savior, we take them for granted. Because they are so familiar, what God has done for us at the birth of the Savior does not amaze us. We have heard it many times before. We know what happened.
Joseph and very pregnant Mary, both of whom had a personal encounter with an angel, who on behalf of God, gave each one a mission. Traveling from their hometown in obedient compliance to a government-mandated census. Their inability to find proper lodging for the birth of the baby. They settled for a barn where animals were kept. Angelic messengers appeared at night to lowly shepherds grazing their flocks in nearby fields to whom they announced “Good News” – in Bethlehem the birth of a “savior.” That chorus of angels sang “Glory to God and on earth peace.” The newborn was wrapped in “swaddling clothes” and laid in an animal’s feeding trough. The shepherds obeyed the instruction of the angels, and shortly after the child’s birth, visited the child, Mary and Joseph. A brilliant star guided the lengthy journey of visitors from the East who brought gifts to a newborn “king” before whom they knelt down and worshipped.
Yes, the details of the story are well-known, and their familiarity can result with our failure to be amazed and even shocked that this is God’s plan of salvation – to be born according to the flesh. Like us in all things but sin. To come so close among us in this way. To be born in abject poverty. To suffer the consequences of human flesh, even death. To break forth and come down from heaven’s heights and live among us. Thomas Merton, the American Trappist monk and theologian, wrote about these Christmas events, “Eternity enters time, and time, sanctified, is caught up into eternity.” The co-mingling of the divine and the human.
This Christmas, let us hear the familiar Christmas story as if for the first time – as if we never heard it before. Let us marvel that God did not dismiss us after the calamities of the first man and woman but came to save us as one of us. The birth of Jesus reveals God’s relentless pursuit of us.
Despite the deafening noise of the world, let us hear this Good News, about which the circumstances of the birth of Jesus speak. God has given to us and to our world a Savior who saves us from within the human experience. A Savior who was born of a woman. A Savior who cried, laughed, loved, pained, grew and belonged.
Despite the intense prevalence and our personal experience of worldly darkness, let us go to Bethlehem to welcome our Savior who is born to make us one with God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. The prophet Isaiah announced, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” Jesus is our light and through the circumstances of His birth, God illumines the world. “To enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” (Luke 1:79)
God could have sent the Savior with might and power, but no, He comes among us in this way. As an infant child. God teases us with mysterious circumstances at the Savior’s birth, which are recalled at Christmas. Let us hear them as if for the first time so that the extent of God’s desire to save us by sending such a Savior in the most wondrous of circumstances amazes and perhaps even shocks us.
May the blessings of the Lord during this holy Christmas Season and throughout the time ahead of the New Year 2023 be bountiful for you.
Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.
Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan, D.D.
Bishop of Camden