The biggest understanding that we gain from the event of Christmas is the incarnation. That’s a packed theological term that deserves unwrapping. The event of Christmas, that the Holy becomes flesh with us, provides an entirely new lens through which we can see our world. This means that our earthly experience matters, that our relationships with one another and with God’s creation matter, that every bit of our life matters. It all matters to God. And that God enters our world in the humblest of persons, through Mary, a little teenager in a marginal town, tells us that we can find God in the most humble of circumstances, in the most surprising places. No wonder so many of our Advent texts implore us to be alert!
So, as we see the instability of our time in our experience of being human, let us together see the Holy take flesh among us and in the most unsuspecting and humble places.
I am so glad to be with you this Christmas. Let us see the Holy be born among us again.
Peace and grace,
Fr. Jonathan