Christmas Reflection

By Fr. Joe McMahon, Pastor

In celebrating the Feast of Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the fullness of God’s loving presence becoming fully human. It is important to note that in celebrating the Feast of Christmas we do not celebrate the birth of Christ coming again each year in history. We celebrate a promise fulfilled, that in the birth of Jesus, God truly became fully human once and for all time. In celebrating this feast, we celebrate that God loves us so much he becomes fully human in Jesus of Nazareth. And what this means is that because of God becoming fully human in Jesus of Nazareth, all our humanity is an encounter with the fullness of God’s loving presence in Jesus the Christ. 

Concretely this means that all our thoughts, all our feelings, all that we experience in our humanity, provide an encounter with the fullness of God’s loving presence in Jesus. Even our sins are an encounter with the forgiving love of God in Christ Jesus. All human relationships, even the broken ones and the strained ones, are encounters with the fullness of God’s loving presence in Jesus. Not only can we experience this individually and in our respective communities and countries, but also because of the Incarnation — God becoming fully human in Jesus — all of humanity for all time is an encounter with the fullness of God’s loving, saving presence.

Because of the Incarnation, a promise fulfilled, we celebrate that God in Jesus, becoming fully human, comes to where we are in life —in our life situations, our struggles, our brokenness, our hopes and dreams, and efforts to love and be loved. It’s important for us to realize that it’s not up to us to find God, for in Jesus becoming human, God comes to us wherever and however we are in life with the fullness of God’s loving, saving presence.