Christmas is surely the most popular of Christian festivals, because it is a celebration of "Love." It touches a deep human need. However much glitter and noise surrounds the festival, deep down it is about love. On the divine level, God shows His love to humanity by giving His Son to a young couple by the name of Mary and Joseph, hundreds of years ago. On the human level, this couple’s first baby is born and, having no family nearby, they show off their Child, first to shepherd's, and then to the Magi (or Kings). Everything about Christmas has to do with showing Love.
The name Christmas comes from the old English words "Cristes Maesse" or "Christ’s Mass," emphasizing what has always been the highlight of the festival for the Catholic family.
From my travels the last few years, I have heard of many people who have had experiences of God revealing Himself to them. God is making Himself known in sovereign acts of Love to people who are often totally unprepared for such an intervention in their lives.
This kind of intervention is what we celebrate at Christmas. It is not only the coming of Jesus Christ into the world that we are celebrating this Christmas, but the full revelation of God in the person of His Son.
Who is this Son? The Bible tells us that He is the reflection of the Father’s Glory, the exact representation of the Father’s Being. The one who sustains all things in existence by His powerful Word. He is the Word of God. He is God Himself. He is Life. He is Light. He is Creator. He is God dwelling among us. He is the One who fills us with the Spirit and with divine Love.
When Jesus breaks into our lives, we have the opportunity to be filled with "enduring Love." In Jesus, God became a human being and made Himself accessible to all human beings. We respond to the incarnation by opening the doors of our hearts to Jesus Christ. Many of us believe in Jesus, but God’s desire is that we do more than just believe. He wants our belief in Jesus to prompt us to follow Him every day of our lives.
In John 1:13, I hear Him saying that when we open our hearts to Jesus, we allow Him to be born again within us. We cannot limit Jesus to a manager in Bethlehem; we must allow Him to be born again in our modern society. When we do, we begin to experience a very special kind of Divine Glory called "enduring Love."
To bring all this about, we have to be like John the Baptist, who was not the "light but came to bear witness to the light." John 1:8 states that "all of us are called to be witnesses to the light so that the world might believe." Christmas reminds us that we are to be evangelizers. To bring glad tidings and to announce peace and good news. Sacred he best Christmas gift you can give anybody this season is to bring them to Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas!
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