We have concluded our period of Advent preparation and now celebrate the joyful season of Christmas. Merry Christmas to you and to all your loved ones!
More than any other season Christmas is a season of joy and wonder, not only for children but for all who still have a childlike heart. The Church has long been captivated by the saving mystery of the Incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas. That the eternal Son of God has taken on human flesh through the Blessed Virgin Mary is the subject of beautiful prayers, hymns and popular devotions in every culture.
In the Sacred Liturgy we customarily reverence the Incarnation with a genuflection. Likewise, when we pray the Angelus, we customarily bend the knee as we say, “And the Word became flesh.” As Scripture proclaims, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10).
Whether we actually say the Holy Name or refer to the mystery of the Incarnation, by which the Son of God received a name, our faith reveres the dignity God bestows on our humanity. This is especially true of our reverence for that mystery by which God came so close to us as to take on our flesh.
You have noticed this sign of reverence at Mass when we recite the Creed. We typically bow when we refer to the lines that proclaim our faith in the Incarnation. That reverence becomes a genuflection at the Masses of the Solemnity of Christmas and again on the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
Some of you may recall from decades past that many Masses would conclude with the reading of that theologically rich passage from the Prologue of Saint John’s Gospel (Jn 1:1-14). As that Gospel was proclaimed, the priest and the congregation would genuflect at the words “And the Word became flesh.”
Our busy world tends not to think of Christmas in a very theologically rich fashion. Secular culture has transformed this season into merely a winter holiday. Many Christmas cards and decorations have nothing to do with the coming of God in the flesh. But, if we have observed Advent well and prepared for Christmas by patient waiting and repentance, then we are aware that we need the generous love and mercy that only God can provide.
For Catholics and those who hold on to a Christian worldview this is the object of our focus in this holy season, which is so blessed by God’s love and remains such a precious time to spend with family and loved ones.
I don’t wish to cast a shadow over the joy of Christmas. However, can not the eyes of faith see the paradox of our time that is so much at war with the dignity of human flesh? A world that seeks first its own pleasure puts a wedge between spousal love and its power to share in God’s fruitful creative love. Our Catholic faith proclaims that sexual love belongs within the marriage commitment of one man to one woman and that the conception of new life should be received as a blessing. Our world commonly accepts that the most vulnerable in the womb can be eliminated if they are perceived as an inconvenience.
Rooted in our faith we proclaim the inherent dignity of the unborn and every human person. Troubling cultural trends show that our world is at war with human flesh when it pits the individual against his or her very own body. The flesh (and human dignity) we have received can be rejected by gender ideologies that see flesh as little more than the projection of the mind and one’s self-proclaimed gender identity.
Certainly, the world into which the Son of God chose to be born was every bit as troubled as our world today. He came to save us from sin and impart new dignity to human flesh. We who celebrate the full import and meaning of Christmas proclaim the true dignity of human flesh and the consequences of the Incarnation of God in our midst. May the witness of our lives proclaim the Good News and lead to greater reverence for how God has dignified our way of being by coming as one like us in the flesh!