Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for 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. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
--(Luke 2:8-12)
The angels’ revelation to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem is the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation that was announced centuries before, after the fall of Adam and Eve. The scene of the nativity, the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the birth of the savior, the one who will strike the head of Satan and sin, but even more amazingly, this tiny infant is God become man, Emmanuel, God truly with us. The sign of the Christ-child, born in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger is already foreshadowing the Paschal mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection. The wrapping in swaddling clothes prefigures the burial clothes and shroud of the tomb foretelling his passion and death. Bethlehem means in Hebrew “house of bread” and the baby Jesus who is laid in a manger, a feeding trough, points to the Eucharist and Jesus being the bread that comes down from heaven and that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will share in his Resurrection and life. As we sing in the traditional Christmas hymn What Child is This:
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
This holy scene, upon which the shepherds gazed in amazement on that cold winter night in Bethlehem, is when God once again walks among us, and reveals the great merciful and redeeming love of the Father now fully made manifest to all humanity in the Christ-child. On this blessed Christmas night, we recall and celebrate the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the profound mystery that God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, out of great and merciful love for us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the faith and obedience of the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed a human nature and became like one of us in all things but sin. The tiny infant Jesus, by taking on our human nature, not only fully redeems our humanity, but by becoming one of us, intimately unites himself with each and every person. God and humanity are now forever joined in intimate communion in the Person of Jesus Christ. As the Second Vatican Council teaches:
The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling. He who is “the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15), is himself the perfect man who has restored in the children of Adam that likeness to God which had been disfigured ever since the first sin. Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For, by his Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way united himself with each man. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human Will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.
— Dogmatic Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,Gaudium et Spes, 22
The Good News of Christmas night is that God’s love and mercy has shattered the darkness of sin and death, that this love is greater than any sin, and that God the Father is faithful in his love for us by sending his only Son to reveal his mercy and to accomplish our redemption. Blessed Pope John Paul II reflects upon this great love revealed in the Incarnation:
The God of creation is revealed as the God of redemption, as the God who is "faithful to himself," and faithful to his love for man and the world, which he revealed on the day of creation. His is a love that does not draw back before anything that justice requires in him. Therefore "for our sake (God) made him (the Son) to be sin who knew no sin." If he "made to be sin" him who was without any sin whatever, it was to reveal the love that is always greater than the whole of creation, the love that is he himself, since "God is love"…This revelation of love is also described as mercy, and in man's history this revelation of love and mercy has taken a form and a name: that of Jesus Christ.
The Redeemer of Man, 9
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ revealed at Christmas is also the revelation of the great dignity of each and every person, that God endowed each of us with when he became one of us and intimately united himself with each and every person. Christmas, then, is when the Church celebrates and rejoices in God’s merciful love revealed in Christ, but Christmas is the great feast of human dignity. The infant Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes is the sign that forever shows how precious is the human person that God himself assumes our nature, and in time will pour out his precious Blood for our redemption. Pope St. Leo the Great in one of his sermons on the Nativity so profoundly illustrates this point and reminds us of our dignity and destiny as Christians that the Nativity of our Lord calls all of us to:
Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God's own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God's kingdom. Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.
It is also important to remember that we don’t just celebrate the Incarnation only on Christmas Day, but that the Church celebrates the Incarnation of Christ throughout the Christmas Season which extends from Christmas Day through the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord on January 8, ending January 9 with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This liturgical season offers many other feasts and celebrations that even more fully reveal the mystery of the Incarnation. The week after Christmas, the Church celebrates the Octave of Christmas in which we are called to continue to rest and reflect upon the gift of the Incarnation.
This year on the Sunday after Christmas, we celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of God that is celebrated on January 1st. This feast speaks directly to the truth and reality of the Incarnation, through which the one person, Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully divine without confusion or division. In other words, since Jesus is really and truly God, the second Person of the Trinity made flesh, then Mary as the Mother of Jesus is truly the Mother of God. Not only is this feast honoring Mary and her role in salvation history, but it also continues to celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation.
On January 6 or twelve days after Christmas, the Church had traditionally celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, but this feast recently has been transferred to the second Sunday after Christmas, this year, January 8. The feast of the Epiphany is one of the most ancient Christian feasts and the word Epiphany from the Greek means “to reveal” because the feast is centered on God being revealed to man in Christ. The Epiphany was first celebrated in the East and originally celebrated four “epiphany” or revealing events in the life of Christ: the Baptism of Jesus, the first miracle of Christ at the Wedding Feast of Cana, the Nativity of Christ, and the visit of the Magi. All of these events in some way reveal Christ’s divinity, that he is truly the Son of God. It is important to note that the Epiphany was the original celebration of Christmas or the birth of Christ. Eventually in the West, the celebration of the Nativity was separated to Christmas on December 25th, but the feast of the Epiphany remained as the celebration of the other three events as the end of the Christmas season. As time continued on, the other feasts were gradually separated, and today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord the Sunday after the Epiphany and the Wedding Feast of Cana is celebrated the next Sunday. The Epiphany for us today is the celebration of the visit of the Magi from the East who, following the star of Bethlehem, beheld the Christ-child and his glory. The Epiphany is when Christ is revealed to the world as the Messiah, the Son of God. In many parts of the world, such as Europe, the Epiphany is considered to be at least as important as Christmas and is sometimes called “Little Christmas” and in many cultures, following the examples of the Magi offering their gifts to Christ, is when the exchange of “Christmas” gifts takes place.
The Epiphany is also a reminder to all of us that we are all called to be an “epiphany” of Christ in the daily witness of our lives. Through ongoing conversion and holiness of life, we should be a radiating sign of Christ’s presence in the world that bring others to Christ and the love and fullness of life that is offered through Him. This is key to the “new evangelization” that the Church is being called to at the beginning of the Third Millennium. The Christmas season is a perfect time to share the light and gift of Christ with others, especially those Catholics who, for whatever reason, have left the Church or are no longer practicing their faith. For many, the Christmas season is a reminder of their faith, of the Church home and family, and so a gentle invitation to come with you to Mass or a simple witness of your own faith might become the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring someone back to the Church. I would like to extend an invitation to anyone who has left the faith for whatever reasons -- whatever hurt or circumstance of life -- to come home to the Catholic Church this Christmas. For more information, please see the diocesan website at www.fwdioc.org to help you in coming home this Christmas.
Finally, I would like to wish each and every one of you and your families a very blessed Christmas, and I pray that the peace and joy of the Incarnation of Christ will be with you as we celebrate the Christmas season. Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to you all!
Copyright © 2011 by North Texas Catholic