Christmas is more than Xmas!
Sorry kids, mommas and poppas! Christmas is not just about a Jolly fat man dressed in coca cola red, nor just about elves living in the North Pole, nor just about magical reindeer either, rather it's fundamentally about the Birth of Christ and all the wild magic that flows from that mystery. In fact, Christmas is about Christ and the Mass that's why it's called Christmas! So to fully celebrate Christmas, you gonna have to get to Mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day!
Let us consider the Mystery of the Nativity which both unveils and is unveiled in the Mass. A mystery because it has levels which like an onion can be pealed back to reveal new levels when we approach with faith and reason. But, unlike an onion, pealing back the levels does not make one go into a smaller world, rather it opens us up to a larger and larger world, a Cosmos, that reaches up to the infinite and eternal mystery of God. In the words of C S Lewis in his last book on Narnia, it’s about going ‘further in and higher up’ (‘The Last Battle’). The Nativity scene is like a ladder that opens our universe up to the whole Cosmos but it must follow the divine laws of right worship. The Cosmos refers to the spiritual realm, the Angelic realm and the divine realm, that touches the earth in and through the singularly unique and historical event of God becoming a man.
It is in Bethlehem that we find the Universe opened up from the inside out. It unveils a Cosmos of constellations in which things, animals, human and angels orbit the real presence of one who is wrapped in swaddling clothes and who is the God-Man. The light on high has entered our domain of shadows and darkness and lights up this constellation of things, animals, humans and angels to reveal that they now possess a signifying reality that points beyond themselves to something of cosmic and eternal significance. The Cosmic significance begins and starts with a baby; and so because of this baby every baby matters whether that baby is in a womb or in a manger - this is the Gospel of Life!
For instance, the manger was where food for animals was placed, but the baby Jesus was put in the manger. Thus the manger becomes a sign for us that this baby will become our food, our supersubstantial food, the Bread of Life and the Bread of Angels! Furthermore, and to further underline this point, Jesus is born in King David’s town called Bethlehem, a name that means ‘house of bread’.
Then there are the Shepherds who were the poorest of the poor and it was they alone who were invited by angels to come and see the baby Jesus. These shepherds looked after the lambs and sheep that would be used in the Temple for sacrifices at the Passover. Their presence at the manger resonates as Jesus himself would be proclaimed by John the Baptist as ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’ for Our Lord would become the new sacrifice of a new passover. Indeed, Our Lord says that he alone is the Good Shepherd because he alone would lay down his life for his sheep. These Shepherds as the poorest of the poor would see this baby as their last best hope.
The coming of the Magi bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh indicated by their worship of him that Jesus was King, Priest and Prophet and thus they who found him first in the stars, have now found him in Bethlehem. Furthermore, they found in him the one who would be the King of kings; he would be the fulfilment of the prophets for he will bring the new Law of grace [Matt 5]; and he would be the priest-king who comes to mankind to forge the right worship of God that must be made in spirit and truth; and a right worship founded on him offering himself up as priest, victim and altar for the sins of the world.
He was born hidden from the sight of the rich and powerful but made visible only to humble servants of God like Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds and the wise men. He was born in the humble dwelling of a stable for he would be reborn in the Souls of those born of water and the Holy Spirit and who live in a spirit of poverty. Indeed, the donkey is also present who represents humility and it is upon this animal of humility that Jesus would ride into the city of Jerusalem as King of the Jews. For Jesus is perfectly humble and his yoke is easy and his burden is light; and so too will we be made humble and graceful like him if and when we receive and live out the grace of the Sacraments in thought, word and deed.
The Ox beside the crib ploughs the fields to cultivate soil for the food and drink of men; we too like this ox are to cultivate our lives, our homes and our culture to be the soil for the seed of the Eucharist made from wheat and grape as they are the matter for the Eucharist. Like the Ox Christ will take on the burden of our sins and through him our sins are to be turned over, lifted and cleared away. In place of the darnel of vice Our Lord the Sower would sow the seeds of virtue - theological and cardinal. Consequently, we will be re-made to live in that lightsomeness of being called the freedom and chivalry of grace. For the glory of God is a human being fully alive!
He was wrapped in swaddling clothes which constrained him. Such swaddling clothes point to the day when nails would constrain him on the cross of sacrifice. Yet God comes as a vulnerable baby and as we know that vulnerability of a baby moves our hearts, for what kind of human being doesn't love a baby? So, the omnipotent God wants us to become like little children who easily and simply love and trust their parents. But now God goes even further and becomes a child to win our hearts over to him and to draw us into the love of the only begotten Son for his heavenly Father and thereby show us the love of God the Father for us, his children; God the Father, who unlike human fathers, is a father who always keeps his promises as the life, death and resurrection of Jesus would testify and ratify.
As there was no room at the inn so many will reject Our Lord. So too today many will not give him a room in their homes , in their hearts, nor under the roof of their souls. The Son of God comes into a world of rejection and scorn but he also comes into a world of danger where the likes of King Herod and the Caesars rule or seemingly rule. God comes as king to make a kingdom that overthrows all kings and emperors, all kingdoms and empires; and it is called the Church. Thus, he comes into a world of danger because he is dangerouns to the Herods and Caesars of this world and it is for this reason they seek him, hunt him, so as to kill him. And as the Massacre of the Holy Innocents testify these leaders do not care how many people they kill in order to remove Christ the King.
Unbeknown to them, however, the powerful are but puppets of more terrible, dark and invisible powers that prey on human beings because they hate these images of God who dwell on earth. These dark powers are Satan’s legions. Our Lord Jesus comes to bring victory for all who seek, who ask and who knock on the door of the wisdom of salvation in a world at war, a Spiritual War! It is he who alone is our Saviour in this War. It is for this reason that the Host of Angels surround the baby Jesus:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host [στρατιᾶς], praising God and saying,“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
The Angels are described as ‘Hosts’ [στρατιᾶς] which means army or war hosts because they are an angelic army who are there to protect the Baby from the dark legions of Satan and reveal to us that we are in a Cosmic Spiritual War.
Christmas thus asks us 3 questions: Whose army are you going to join? Which king are you going to choose, Herod, Caesar or Jesus? How many world wars do you need to have before you come to recognise this Cosmic Spiritual War is real and underpins all these world wars?
May you all have a happy and merry Christmas!
May Our Lord bestow in your hearts a joy and peace that the world cannot give you.
And may Our Lord bless, guard and protect you and all your loved ones for the darkness cannot overcome the light of Christ!
