The season of Advent (which means literally, a coming) is a season of preparation for Christmas and the Incarnation Season. We are called to prepare our hearts for the reality that in time and history our God became man. At Christmas, with joyful hearts, we celebrate this awesome reality that out of love, God became one of us to redeem our very nature from within. Christmas can be celebrated from so many different aspects, but the word that sums up Christmas more than any other is Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is the beauty and truth of Christmas and with faith we know that underlying the truth of Christmas is God’s boundless love.
Early in Advent as I was reading a passage from the Office of Readings, which all priests are asked to read and pray, I came across a powerful reading which gets at the heart of what Christians celebrate today. Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, who is a doctor of the Church and was a bishop from the fourth century, writes of the marvel of the Incarnation: “The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning of beginning, the light of light, the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable seal, the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father; he it is who comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul, to purify like by like. He takes to himself all that is human, except for sin.”
The above passage gets at the incredible wonder of the Incarnation. We marvel at the fact that our God who is awesome and completely other, would humbly bow to our human nature. Why? The clearest and most profound answer is because God loves us with an extravagant love, a love beyond our imagining. The other reason God came to be with us is that we needed saving. Prior to Christ’s coming our human race was disfigured by sin, lost and wandering in a dark world. Christ’s coming ushers in a new chapter of salvation history, one that attests to God’s love, saving grace, and the light of God’s truth. As Christians, we respond to God’s abundant love, incarnate in Christ, with great hope. Our hope is rooted in the reality and meaning of Emmanuel: God with us.
It is important to remember another important truth this Christmas. God was not only with us two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. God continues His intimate journey with the creation made His image. We are willed and loved by God, bearing an imprint of the Divine. This reality provides us great consolation, especially amidst suffering. Furthermore, God’s union with humanity did not end with the Ascension of Christ. Rather, the ongoing reality of Emmanuel is manifested in a variety of ways. God is with us in and through the Church founded by Christ. God is with us in the Word spoken in the assembly and the Word spoken to us in the prayerful contemplation of Scripture. God is with us in the Sacraments of the Church, especially in the Eucharist, the source and summit of our Catholic Faith. God is with us through the Holy Priesthood which Christ established to serve God’s people. Finally, God is with us in one another as we are called to manifest Christ’s presence to all and recognize Christ’s presence in all.
As Christians, our enduring call this Christmas and throughout the year is to have hearts that are open to God’s presence and love. Like Mary, the Mother of God, and St. Joseph, her spouse, we are called to say yes to God and God’s will in our lives. The truth of this dynamic fidelity is that our yes to God allows Christ to become rooted in and manifested through each one of us. God’s love and presence become once again incarnate in us and through us. When this occurs, the ancient mystery of our faith is restored: a darkened world is enlightened; God’s love is experienced anew; and all people are lifted by hope in a God who is with us!