“It changed everything.”
Those words seem so easy to say. In common conversation, they can highlight the differences between any number of before and after moments. For instance, when someone gets that dream job, countless financial and personal opportunities come with it. When a friend gets married, everyone sees him or her less, or after a relative goes through and recovers from cancer treatments, everyone notices that they have a different view of life and suffering.
All of these examples, and countless more each of us can probably recall in our own circles of friends and acquaintances, are united by two things. First, they describe real changes of life, of attitudes, of outlook. But secondly, as important as these changes are, they don’t really change everything. Even after these important moments, the basic structure of life and human nature remains.
But as we approach once more the celebration of Christmas, we are drawn again into that moment in the history of the world and of the human race when, in fact, everything did change. That is why Christmas, and the true meaning of Christmas, is of such incomparable importance.
Before Christmas, the world lived in the aftermath of the disastrous choice of Adam and Eve to rebel against God. Seduced not only by Satan but also by the deformation of their own consciences that sought to “be like gods, who know good and evil” (Gen 3:5), they sinned. In doing so, they squandered the friendship offered by God that was intended to be transmitted to all who followed from them.
As a result, because of sin, the separation of the human race from God meant that every human person is born without God’s grace. Creation too shares in the wounds of that sin. And most importantly, because it is an offense against God, human nature cannot bring about the healing and forgiveness of sin to make things right.
On Christmas night, more than 2,000 years ago, everything changed.
God, who so loved the world, sent His Son among us. He was born in that manger in Bethlehem. In poverty and simplicity, enveloped in the love of His mother and foster-father, God took on a full share in our humanity.
In faith we celebrate the birth of Jesus because our own human nature was raised up as never before by this event. Every human being is sacred because we share human flesh with God Himself. Even more, we recognize that if God loves the human race, and therefore every human person, enough to come and live among us, how great is our dignity. This is not an invention of our own creation, but rather the revelation of the love of God.
Additionally, when Jesus took on human nature through His birth, He began the process of God revealing Himself fully to the world. And later, Jesus communicates God’s will for us as He teaches the crowds. For the first time, the human race could fully know and understand itself and
its purpose.
That same human flesh, taken on at Christmas, was central to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Both were true, real and parts of this world. In those events, the forgiveness of sin, which human nature could not do for itself, was offered to the world and to each of us.
Without this reminder of the true meaning of Christmas, we are left with only a human celebration of a story. And when even that story is removed, we are left with a materialistic Santa-filled celebration of the end of each year.
On Christmas night, the angel told the shepherds, “behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2, 10-11).
On that night, God’s love, the forgiveness of sins and the dignity we bear was all revealed. Oh, how much we have to celebrate every Christmas. Everything has changed, and for the better.
A Blessed Christmas to all.
