Christmas Day: Christ the Word Incarnate

CHRISTMAS MASS AT DAY 2017

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PEOPLE

DECEMBER 25, 2017

Jesus, I trust in you!

The Word made Flesh

The new-born Baby is the Word of God made flesh. He is called Word because he is the self-revelation of God. St. Paul fittingly explains: “In these days, God has spoken to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word.” With these words in mind, we look at the little Baby and we ask: How could this be? We find it difficult to believe because we know God to be powerful. And so, we expect something big…something grandiose…something Bongga! But all we see is a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying on a manger. Where is the refulgence of Divine glory? Where is the imprint of God’s being? Where is the might that sustains all things?

The difficulty comes from the fact that we keep trying to see the Baby from our own point of view…from the point of view of the world. We keep forgetting that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. We keep imposing on God the way we want to see him. But the Baby born to us is not God the way we want to see him. It is the way God sees himself. It is the way God wishes to be known. God sees himself as the simplest of beings. God wishes to be known as the simplest Truth, the purest Good, as the truly Beautiful. And what could be truer than a new-born Baby, one that does not know how to pretend, one that tells you that what you see is what you get? What greater Good is there than a new-born Baby, one that simply makes you smile, one that elicits nothing from you but love? What is more beautiful than a new-born Baby, one that naturally attracts, one that does not even have to make an effort to draw people to himself? He is simply who he is!

We always say that Divine glory is hidden in this little Child. But this little Child is himself the Divine glory! He is “far superior than the angels and his name is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say: ‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.’” His glory is not his external garments. His glory is who he is: He is God’s Son! “We saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” When we look at this Baby what do we see? We see grace and truth! Grace is God’s gift of himself. Truth is who he is. When we look at this Baby what do we see? We see the invisible God. Jesus himself said it: “He who sees me sees the Father.” “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.”

But he does not only reveal God to us. In this Baby, we see God giving himself to us. He gives himself to us so that we may transformed and become like him. “To those who accept him, he has given the power to become children of God.” The only begotten Son of God makes us like him – children of God. He became like us so that we can become like him. He came down to us so that we can rise up to him. Though Baptism, he shares us his Holy Spirit. He gives us a share of his Divine life. His Holy Spirit enables us to call God in the very same way Jesus calls him: “Abba! Father!” He transforms us and elevates us to himself. This was what Lucifer was afraid of: the “divinization of man”. He was afraid that God would also call us his sons and daughters. In vain did he try to prevent this from happening. But nothing could stop God from sharing his love. Nothing could stop God from sharing his Divine life. Nothing can stop God from giving himself. Nothing…not even Satan himself.

And so, we stand before the manger and we see our food. We look at the Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and we see the victim to be sacrificed for us. We look into his eyes and we see so much love and that love is for us. That love will feed us. That love will die for us. We can say nothing else but “Thank you.” Thank you, Jesus for coming. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for simply who you are…grace, truth, and love. “From his fullness we have received grace upon grace…grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!