CHRISTMAS DAY 2022
At Christmas the Christian Churches throughout the world celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ The Scripture readings of Christmas tell us “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” And the Angel tells us ‘Behold, I bring you news of great joy for all the people. To-day a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’ Every Christmas this marvellous message is announced to us too. Throughout the Advent season we have waited for the coming of our Savior. Now we celebrate His birth with unrestrained joy. But as joyful as we might like to be we remember that for a large number of people Christmas is not a happy time. We also remember that in many places things are not as good as they could be. During the Christmas season there is an extensive exchange of greetings and good wishes among friends. These greetings are a reminder of those “good tidings of great joy that shall be for all the people, for this day is born to you a Savior Who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11).
They are a reminder, too, that all blessings and graces come to us from God. During the Christmas season there is also an exchange of gifts. But with the exchange of gifts comes the responsibility to remember those who have little or nothing at all in terms of a roof over their heads and food in the cupboard especially this year with the current financial hardship that many people are having to deal with. At Christmas we celebrate the consoling truth that God came among us in Jesus. At Christmas we celebrate the great truth that God is not wrapped in silence, but wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. In the infant Jesus we see the one who will show us how close God is, who will teach us how to call God “Abba”, and the one who will die on the cross to prove the measure of God’s love for us. Christmas is a great celebration of our faith in Jesus the Son of God our saviour. We gather to celebrate light in the midst of darkness; we celebrate the new hope that Jesus has generated in people down the centuries. He is our light; he is our hope.
When we want to know God, it is to Jesus that we turn; when we want to worship God, it is through Jesus that we sing our praises. We give glory to God in the highest for revealing himself to us. All of us and many millions of people since the birth of Christ, have a new way not just of understanding life but of living it. It is a truth of history that for more that twenty centuries untold numbers of people have, have been caught up in the message, of Jesus the child from Bethlehem and have had their lives profoundly changed by him. We are numbered among them here and now whoever we are wherever we are. At Christmas all of us are invited to take the Christ child and welcome him into our hearts. In Jesus we have the sure and certain proof that God loves us, and we all need to live in the assurance of that love. Let us rejoice over this Christmas season in the one who reveals the face of God to us, Jesus who is Emmanuel the Son of God who is God with us.
Fullerton T 