12/25/2022

It is Christmas, and I want to wish each of you and each family and household a Blessed, Joyful, and Merry Christmas. The presents are a sign, and decorations are a sign, the well wishes, the great food and time spent together are but signs of the great occasion of the Incarnation – the fact that God has become flesh, has sought to dwell with us. What humility on the part of God, what a privilege for us, what a great way to impart hope on us who lost so much at the fall!
Today’s feast celebrates the first big step in God’s plan of salvation. We were alienated from God by the fall of Adam and Eve. We were isolated, unable to return to the Father – the chasm which separated us was just too big for us to overcome, for us humans to cross. But God has done it, and that is what we celebrate today. When God becomes human, humanity is reconnected to the Father, hope of union with God is revived, our fallen-ness and the curse of death which it brought no longer has the last word. The beginning of a new creation has been made possible, our redemption can be built on what we celebrate today.
Who would have ever thought that God would condescend to become human? Who but a God who loves us would ever bother to do something like this? From today, we know for certain that God loves us, that God desires to be with us and all the suffering that entails. God did not “fix” our fallen world, he joined it in order to suffer with us, die with us, and show us how to negotiate the evil and suffering that we live with. God will find a way to unite Himself with us, to give Himself to us, to show us how to live in this world while striving for another, better world – a new creation. So we sit in awe, praising God with the angels, thanking God for coming to be one of us, looking to God to see what greatness we are capable of.
We await the unfolding of the plan of salvation as we go through the Liturgical year. This is the drama that will take us to Christ’s public ministry, to Calvary, to the tomb, to the Resurrection, to the Ascension, to the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the passing on of the process of salvation from Christ to the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Church and channeled through the sacraments. This is salvation history, the story of God seeking his People. And today is the greatest intervention of God in our human history. So let us rejoice, let us celebrate, let us with gratitude go about our lives ever mindful of the context: our lives are framed by a God who loves us and wants to be in union with us. It is really all that matters.
It is a joy to celebrate Christ’s first coming with you, and to prepare of His second coming.

Peace. Father Albert, O.S.B.