By Michael Heidt
At the Masses of Christmas we stood with faithful Christians around the world, celebrating the most miraculous of events, the birth of God, the Incarnation.
At that moment, some two thousand years ago, the Eternal Word, begotten of the Father, the light which shines in darkness and is the life of men was made Flesh, and the ancient enmity of God and man was ended. God and humanity, driven apart by human sin since the Fall in the Garden, were now one again in the Person of our Savior. The first act in the saving drama of our redemption had begun, the glory of which was reflected in the heavens by a star and a chorus of angelic voices crying out Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!
But think, such glory was revealed to us in innocence and tenderness, in a defenseless baby lying in a manger, watched over by His adoring Mother. Austin Farrer, in The Crown of the Year, speaks to this and the love which it entails.
“WHEN Mary laid Jesus Christ upon her knees, when she searched him with her eyes, when she fed him at the breast, she did not study to love him because she ought, she loved him because he was dear: he was her Son. His conception had been supernatural, perplexing, affrighting; it had called for faith in the incomprehensible, and obedience beyond the limit of human power. His nativity was human and sweet, and the love with which she embraced it was a natural growth, inseparable from the thing she loved. She was blessed above all creatures, because she loved her Maker inevitably and by simple nature; even though it needed the sword—wounds of the Passion to teach her fully that it was her Maker whom she loved. The Son of Mary is the Son of all humankind; we embrace him with the love of our kind, that we may be led up with Mary to a love beyond kind, a selfless love for the supreme Goodness, when we too shall have climbed the ladder of the cross.”
This Christmas and Epiphanytide, may we be caught up in ever-increasing love for Him who was born for us, crucified, rose again and ascended into heaven so that we in our turn, in Christ, might have everlasting life.
There should be no end of rejoicing on this theme as we faithfully proclaim the Gospel of salvation in the year ahead.
God bless you all.
Fr. Michael Heidt is Editor of Forward in Christ and a priest in the Diocese of Fort Worth.
