The mystery of God’s coming to earth urges us to live the Christmas celebration. This is a fundamental starting point that deepens the meaning of our life and existence and renews our faith and hope in the living presence of God in us and around us.
God became man, so that man might become God. This truth illuminates the darkest parts of our lives. This faith becomes a source of joy, which opens the door of our existence to the transcendent world of God.
The Gospels describe in simple colors the paradoxical birth of Christ, the expectation and the fulfillment of the prophecies.
Thus, “when the fullness of time came”, God came down from the height of heaven, that is, from the inconceivable mystery of His freedom and love, to unite with human nature.
God chose the darkest point in history to fulfill His promises, in a place and in a way that amazes us. The incomprehensible and paradoxical way in which God came to our earth, but also comes every time in our lives, overturns human facts and confirms that “the impossible with men is possible with God”. The birth of Christ “gave the world the light of knowledge”, because it revealed the image of God and the perfect man. Such knowledge is the light of soul. This is why the Incarnation of God, as a knowledge of the absolute truth, cannot be compared to any other knowledge and truth of the world, since it assures us that heaven has come down to earth and man has found what he so persistently sought.
The birth of Christ and the rebirth of man
We are called to experience this mystery of history as the miracle of our own existence and life. Because as long as the “sun of righteousness” does not rise in our soul, we seek in vain to find in the world the “made king” of the vision of the prophecies and the certainty of the Scriptures. The birth of Christ is a constant invitation to be spiritually reborn.
Spiritual rebirth is an existential event, a great miracle, since man becomes a new person. An eminent theologian with his Roman thinking connects the spiritual rebirth of man with the image of God “as a child”, when he writes:
“The words child and God are revealing about the mystery of Christmas. In a way, it is a mystery addressed to the child who continues to live secretly within each adult, to the child who continues to hear that the adult has stopped listening and who responds with joy, to the adult within the overripe, tired and cynical world that lives unable to feel”.
After all, Christ tells us in His Gospel: “Become like children” (Matthew 2:3). With His phrase, He not only alludes to lost innocence and forbearance, but motivates us to realize that every time we become like children, we are spiritually reborn, since we find what we have lost, that is, the ability to surrender to what we love and trust. This is the only way we live the transcendence, the miracle, the mystery.
Let us not mourn the secular celebration of Christmas. The fragmented image of the world around us and the tarnished image of God within us came to be gathered together and replaced by the “Lord born in a cave and in a manger”. If this shocks us, we will be reborn within ourselves, and then we can hope that the world around us will also change.
Let’s go for the Holy Night that will banish the darkness…
