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Commentary on the Gospel for Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Everything arrives in its time. After the four weeks of Advent, today we celebrate Christmas and pull out all the stops. The Church is filled with white, with flowers, with joyful songs. Even our streets and homes are decorated in countless ways. The traditions of each country have been rich and varied. Even many who don’t believe in God in the Western world are carried away by the joy of this celebration. It’s a heartwarming, family-centered holiday. It’s a celebration that touches many hearts. And that’s a good thing. We shouldn’t dismiss it because God has many and varied ways of reaching people’s hearts.
Still, we believers might want to make an effort to go beyond the surface of this celebration—to not be fooled by appearances, twinkling lights, or shiny ornaments. Let’s focus on the very heart of this holiday, which recalls a decisive moment in our history. What we call Christmas might better be named the Feast of the Incarnation. It’s when we remember God’s glorious entry into our world, when He became one of us—flesh and blood. It’s when He showed us that we matter to Him, that His love is so great, He came to dwell among us.
But let’s go even deeper. While it’s crucial to recognize that God became human, it’s just as important to reflect on the circumstances of that Incarnation. It’s one thing to be born in a palace and quite another to be born in a dirty, smelly stable. It’s one thing to be the child of the rich and powerful, and another to be born into a humble, poor family that found no room at the inn (and we all know there’s always room for the rich). Let’s look at the nativity scene and strip it of all its decorations. Because God—our God, the Almighty—chose to become flesh in the most fragile, vulnerable, and defenseless way imaginable: as a newborn baby.
This is how God lowered Himself to become one of us. He became incarnate in the very opposite of what we imagine when we think of the Almighty. At Christmas, God became “nothing-powerful.” Like us. That is true closeness and solidarity. That is truly “God-with-us.”