Today, or rather tomorrow (as I have prepared this for Christmas Eve), is the day we celebrate the incarnation of Christ our Lord and Saviour as part and parcel of humanity. Not as something or someone that is remote and away from the average John or Jane Doe on the street but a person who is like you and me the average John / Jane Doe on the street. Luke's gospel gives the main seasonal account of the birth of Jesus the Christ child (2:1-20) and as we have heard it is as normal as any other birth in creation. Yes, the circumstances are somewhat lacking by modern circumstances, however, should you go to many impoverished countries around the world you would find birth occurring in similar circumstances. This very unremarkable birth in terms of human society is extraordinary within our own lives as a harbinger of what is to come and as a reminder of what we perhaps miss on an everyday basis, especially as we celebrate at this time of year.
The world has taken away the mystery of Christ's birth and left us with a commercial entity that begins even before the Advent season. It is the same in our everyday lives, the mystery and the richness that comes with new beginnings has been overtaken by a commercial outlook. Christmas is, at the end of the day, about an extreme change in how we are to see the world and our faith journey. Prior to this birth God was seen as something that was untouchable, unknowable and beyond our simple minds. In the Incarnation we see God's presence in humanity as something that can be touched upon rather than being held apart. Yes, God is and can never be truly known until we see God face to face but here in the Christ child we have the wellspring of the potentiality that allows us access to God's presence within our own lives. This is the hope that is present in the child as it is present in every child that is born into this world. Above all else this is a fundamental change in our own understanding of God's presence. A change that continues into Christ's life and must be taken up in our own Christian lives as we struggle within our ordinary lives.
In our own lives we can see that a new child brings change in the lives of the parents and family. How much more then does the Christ child's birth bring change into our lives and how we are to perceive God? The change from something somewhere to a presence within reach is mind blowing. A presence that shows to us what it means to be a God that is personified in Christ and the love that is found in the presence of a new born child. For we can all acknowledge that love is present at the moment of birth as the child becomes incarnate in the reality of this world. We cannot capture that love for we would all then be cuddling babies in a stagnant world which shows no future. The Christ child grows and suffers the vicissitudes of life just as we do demonstrating to us that love is ever pervasive and ever changing in a world that is filled with doubt. In adoring the child we become part of the ever changing story that is the growth of faith in our lives. It tells us that growth is not possible without change for us as part of God's creation who seek God in our human existence.
In the presence of the Christ child we find ourselves over awed, in the same way as the shepherds in the fields at the sight of the angels (Lk 2:9), as we are confronted with the immeasurable number of possibilities that are present in this moment. Our own response to the freedom that comes in the form of the Incarnation is indicative of our lives and our own yearnings. Are we able to encompass the possibilities or are we going to defer them becoming bound in the stone of our hearts as we are unable to let go of our past? Are we going to grow and change into what God is calling us to or are we going to become unresponsive to that call and see our faith and those around us become demeaned and belittled? God becoming human challenges us with these questions but leaves it to us to respond of our own free will. This Christmas, how are you going to respond as God calls us into the world through the Christ child's presence?
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