Gospel Mediation – The Nativity of the Lord

One of the most beautiful things about the Christmas story is its human simplicity. How very ordinary! How relatable! We see a young family caught up in government regulations, encountering difficulty booking travel arrangements. We see a belated baby shower filled with the most unlikely attendees. Yet, if you attended Christmas Mass during the day, the Gospel does not contain the familiar story of over-crowded inns and hay-lined mangers. It features something much more mysterious. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God … all things came to be through him.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us the Christmas story from the human perspective. John’s Gospel tells the Christmas story from the divine perspective.

“What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race.” C.S. Lewis described Christmas as God parachuting down behind enemy lines. Jesus entered into a world darkened by sin, and it isn’t so different today. We can find it in the complications of our own lives and the lives of our families. We can find it in our cities, our nation, our world. But it wasn’t only the star that shone on Christmas night. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

In the midst of all that is so very human — whether the humdrum or the horrible — “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” No matter what we bring into this Christmas day, God enters our existence. He enters our experiences. When we allow God into our lives in a new way, when we surrender to Him our lingering areas of darkness, then we will “[see] his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” It’s time to welcome Him.

©LPi