Today is born our Saviour

John begins his Gospel describing the mystery of the Word which becomes flesh.  The Word of God, which brought all creation into being has now taken human form and dwells in our midst.  We forget sometimes how spectacular this really is.  In the Incarnation human flesh, men and women, are blessed and are made sacred.

The infant calls to mind for us the fragility and vulnerability of the human person.  Not unlike infants we are in the need of care and compassion.  I recall a family that I had been counseling, the older son mentioned to his mother that I was more like a 'father' to him than his biological father.  I did not hit the child or swear at him.  Humanity is sacred and is deserving of integrity and dignity.

John's first chapter goes on to decry the evil and darkness that pervades the human family.  We truly live in a culture of death.  The faithfulness of the Advent people, and the coming of Jesus Christ asks us to consider that we are about something more, something that is greater.  We have a culture that would be happy for all of us to follow our more base instincts.  We need to respond with faith and faithfulness to all of the trials and chaos that our world offers us.

On this most solemn feast we Christians need to make a joyful noise, to be sure, but more so a noise that what we are has a divine and human nature.  The presence of Christ should not and cannot be folded away at the end of Christmas week.  As in earlier in the season our demeanor must be that voice which cries out in the wilderness.

Today Christ hopefully finds a home in our midst.  The humility and poverty of Jesus invites us to bow down before him, to cradle him, and to consider that he has come into our midst to be part of our life, that we might become part of his life forever.