5th January 2013

If we reckon days Jewish fashion as starting in the evening, Christmas Eve begins the festive season and this is the twelfth but not the last day of Christmastide. It is another day to reflect upon the mystery of incarnation, before the celebration of the Epiphany, which concludes Christmas festivities, begins tonight on the thirteenth night. Thirteen is one of those significant numbers, like seven and forty, all of which symbolise completion in numerlogical typology.

In very few places do the festivies of Christmas last a full thirteen days any more. Once New Year is reached, holidays finish and regular working patterns resume, with a further brief break in some countries to celebrate Epiphany. Yet, duties can be resumed refreshed and inspired by time spent with family and friends, time spent reflecting on life's true value, dreaming of a different future and making plans, time spent a little closer to the mysteries which give life meaning.

It is a time to remember how Jesus the Son of God, though infinitely rich, became poor for our sakes in solidarity with the disinherited and impoverished people of this world, that they might be uplifted by knowledge of his love for them.

Just as it is possible for God to be so much closer to us than we can be aware of, we poor narrow sighted human beings may hardly be aware of our true selves and what our Creator and Redeemer has made us capable of becoming in relation to Himself. St John writes: "Beloved we are God's children now. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is."

This assertion is a source of great hope and comfort, not only in the face of death, but also at any and every moment of failure, crisis and challenge that confronts us in life itself. It is a word of life for those moments when we may feel least capable of coping with what we know we must engage with. It is a word of light in the darkness of uncertainty and becoming, when we feel most alone, yet not alone because of Emmanuel - 'God with us'.

23rd December 2012 - O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel you are our king and judge, the one whom the peoples await, and their Saviour. O come and save us O Lord our God.

The Hebrew name invoked in today's Advent antiphon means 'God is with us'. Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah's birth (7:14), declares that the One to come as saviour will bear this name. 

The evangelists name Jesus as the one to fulfil Isaiah's inspired expression of hope in God's power to save his people, through his unique birth, and the impeccable life of self sacrificial love and service which follows. 

In Jesus, God becomes present in human flesh, not in any abstract philosophical ideal way, but in the personal reality of this man whose story the Gospels recount. Because of Jesus nobody can say that God doesn't understand the trials and tribulations human beings go through.

One can argue about the necessity of his sinless conception birth, or the sinlessness of any child that is born for that matter. If the inclination to sinful behaviour is of genetic origin, what is even more vital is the freedom human beings have to resist inclination and impulse, by direction our attention elsewhere, to higher things. "If you are risen with Christ seek the things which are above where Christ is." said St Paul. God has given human beings the ability not to sin, and in Jesus we see that freedom can be lived fully, in the face of the most evil and life threatening temptations possible. It is an ability and freedom each person must take ownership of in coming to know God.

In showing us His way, at such close quarters, he rescues us from all that threatens to overpower and annihilate us. If we stumble and fall, experience any setback, He doesn't take over control unless really necessary. His way is to help us to our feet, and show us the paths we have a choice to follow. He goes wherever we go. We learn the truth with Him and from His guidance. In this, he is the most gentle of judges, concerned only for the welfare of those who are his own sisters and brothers.

Emmanuel, God-with-us, is the One who accompanies our journey through life, who encourages us to live for others and not for ourselves, as we learn first how to live for God. It's when we give time to God in silence and stillness, opening ourselves to the infinite to be filled with the Spirit that we are given strength to love, and find in this life's fulfilment.