Christmas Thoughts

Those of you who know me will know that I’m someone who is not a very “Christmas-y” sort of person…

Why?

Well, it’s probably partly because all my childhood recollections of school between September to January are dominated by memories of interminable carol rehearsals! I hate shopping at all times of the year, but especially during the Christmas rush. I hate picking up pine needles and I think fake trees are, well, fake. I don’t like the dark or cold which I usually associate with Christmas. I always look forward to the extraordinary liturgy of the Church at Easter, but at Christmas it is largely unchanged. And finally, nothing annoys me more than the saccharin-coated cheeriness which seems to be induced in people every December.

Trying to be a better person

I know all of this makes me sound like a little bit of a Scroodge McGrumpypants and most of these reasons aren’t exactly reasonable, but I really have made an effort this year! I have endeavoured to be a bit more like a “normal” person! For example, I went to not one, but two different events at which I knew there would be carol singing! I even participated. I’m clearly growing as a person…

Seasonal Thoughts

I have also been looking for an idea on which to meditate during the Christmas season. I’ve come up with two main thoughts, probably in no small part due to my car’s current CD selection: Christopher West explaining Pope John-Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”.

My first thought concerns the physicality of the Incarnation and Christmas, and the second concerns the humility demonstrated by God:

Physicality

I suppose it’s obvious, but I think it bears reiterating: Christ came in the flesh.

The Gnostic sects of the early centuries said that Jesus only appeared to have a body. They held a dualistic worldview which would be best summed up as “Spirit good, body bad”. However, Catholics have always affirmed that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity took on a real, flesh and blood human body:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us

– John 1:14

This flesh and blood was shed even as a child when Jesus was marked with the sign of the covenant, circumcision. During his ministry on earth He could have simply cured people with a spoken word, yet so often He chose to accomplish healings through physical means:

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes…the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

– John 9:6-7

And at the end of His earthly life His physical body was beaten, spat upon, crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross:

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

– Philippians 2:8

I’ve been considering what this says about Christianity. I think it tells us that Christianity is not a spirituality divorced from physically, but one that is deeply rooted in the created order.

Think for a moment about the “sensuous” nature of the Catholic Sacraments. They all engage our senses and, although they are concerned with the spiritual, they are concretely expressed through material things…

When we are Baptized, our bodies are washed with water. When we are Confirmed or suffering illness, we are anointed with oil. When we go to Confession, we confess our sins to a priest with our lips. When a man receives Holy Orders, it is through the imposition of the Bishop’s hands. When a man and women get married, they exchange rings and come together physically in the intimate marital embrace. Finally, at every Liturgy the faithful eat the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. 

Humility

The other thought I’ve had concerns humility. In the Incarnation and the Nativity we see the humility of God. The all-powerful Lord enters His creation; the Creator of the Universe, from whose fingers stars tumbled (to paraphrase Grandpa Sheen), takes the form of a defenseless baby who cannot even lift His own head! As Paul says in his letter to the Philippians:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness 

– Philippians 2:6-7

The word “awesome” is so often over-used today, but I think that when we consider the truth of God becoming man, awe really is the most fitting response.

Conclusion

When I was living in London I would often go to Hyde Park Corner where there would be lively debate among those of different faiths and ideologies.

I remember being struck by the Islamic response to the Incarnation. To the Muslim mind, the idea that Almighty God would humble Himself and enter His creation, that He would take on a human nature, would get hungry, tired and have normal bodily functions, all these seemed shocking and blasphemous assertions.

While I would reject the charge of blasphemy, I can’t help but think that we have something to learn from the disciples of Islam concerning  the Incarnation. It is so easy for us Christians to become desensitized to the idea of God becoming man. The Muslims recognize the breathtaking and shocking nature of this claim. I think we need to recover something of this…

At every Mass we declare “He became man” and we then rapidly move on to the next line of the Creed, but until fairly recently (in the Roman Rite) everyone genuflected at the mention of the Incarnation. I’ve heard it explained like this: it is a mystery so deep that we have no choice but to fall silent in contemplation…

These are the things I’m going to be thinking about over Christmas.