In his address at the opening of the 12th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 6, 2008, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI remarks that the history of salvation is not a small event on a poor planet. It is not a minimal thing which happens by chance in the immensity of the universe. Rather “it is the motive for everything, the motive for creation. Everything is created so that this story can exist, the encounter between God and his creature. The Christmas story is one of the most popular stories in all of history. It is the story of Christ who we strive to keep in Christ-mas. It the story we hear and then go out to “tell it on the mountain.” And so, Luke in the Infancy Narrative of Jesus intentionally detailed the historicity of the moment; “in the days of Herod, King of Judea” (Lk 1:5), at the time of Emperor Augustus and the first enrollment (census) when Quirinius was governor of Syria (Lk 2:1-2). The Jesus of history, therefore, belongs to a time that can be actually dated and geographically located. This marks the entrance of the Logos, the Word made flesh. God has visited his people. The Creator meets his creature. What a history!
Jesus did not come into this world alone. He came into this world by way of a family, and he brought us salvation so that we could share membership in the family of God. That is the very meaning of salvation and the meaning of Christmas: “but to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). Therefore, this is our own family history- the church as the family of God. This history has been carefully passed down in the household we call the Church. Therefore, one of the most profound implications of the Christmas story is that God made his dwelling among men, women, and children. He calls us to become his family. This is our heritage, for we are Christ’s family, and the joy of Christmas belongs to us.
The entrance of the Christ child into the world calls for joyful celebration because he comes to reveal the loving kindness of the heart of God. St Gregory Palamas (monk of Mount Athos, archbishop of Thessalonike, famous theologian and saint of the Orthodox Church), in one of his sermons, expounds the motive of the divine incarnation with clarity, rhetorical force, and theological profundity. I would like to quote him extensively because of its richness in summarizing the salvation history:
“God’s Son became man to show to what heights He would raise us; to keep us from self-exaltation through thinking that we ourselves have secured the revocation of our fall; to join together, as a true mediator, and as Himself being both divine and human, the sundered aspects of our nature; to break the chain of sin; to purify the defilement that sin introduced into our flesh; to demonstrate God’s love for us; to make clear to us to what depths of evil we had fallen, since only God’s incarnation could retrieve us; to be an example to us of humility and a remedy for the pride of flesh and passion; to show how our nature as created by God is good; to be the inaugurator and assurance of resurrection and eternal life, destroying despair; to make men [and women] sons and daughters of God and participators in divine immortality, since He became Son of man and took on mortality; to show how human nature was created in the mage of God above all other created things; to honor this mortal flesh, so that proud spirits should not be thought or think themselves divine because of their bodiless and seeming immortality; to unite what is separated by nature, mankind and God, since he became a mediator both human and divine by nature”.
Prayer in reflection.
We give you praise almighty God, for sending us the gift of your only son Jesus.
May his coming into the world be a source of constant inspiration for all who seek to follow him, may we who have been uplifted by his coming join in the angelic hymn, in all times and in all situations lifting high the the sweet refrain; Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth! Amen.