The Christmas story, as related in the Gospels, furnishes the background for memories that reach back to childhood. Few of us, either as children or admiring parents, can ever forget the Christmas Nativity plays that created such excitement in our earliest years at school. Frequently they are remembered as much for what went wrong as for what went right. Every primary teacher knows that organising the very young into a coherent public performance is both a messy and uncertain business.
The infancy narratives of Jesus reach beyond nostalgia. They remind us, in the words of the Letter to the Philippians, that at his Incarnation the Son of God did not stand aloof from a messy and uncertain world. “His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death.”
St Paul quoted this ancient hymn to call a troubled and divided world to the peace promised to the shepherds called to witness the birth of Jesus.
The shepherds responded to their call and discovered a deeper joy within themselves. They discovered that their lives, lived on the very fringes of society as vagrant shepherds to nomadic flocks, were not forgotten. In a stable whose obscurity matched their own, they were drawn into the presence of the child born as the Mighty God and Prince of Peace. They left rejoicing. The darkness of the night had given birth to a joy that would never be taken from them. “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to those who enjoy his favour.”
St Luke’s Christmas narrative emphasises the humility and trusting faith of those who welcomed Christ’s coming: Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, together with shepherds in the fields. His account does not forget the enduring faith of Simeon and Anna whose lifelong fidelity found its home in the child presented at the Temple.
Matthew’s infancy narrative records that the first to acknowledge Jesus were outsiders, wise men who had travelled from afar. Jerusalem’s establishment remained unmoved, except for King Herod whose jealousy persecuted any light that threatened to eclipse his own.
St John’s Gospel invites us to accept the Light that continues to promise peace to a troubled world. “He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him, but to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.”
May this Christmas open our eyes to the Word that was made flesh and continues to dwell among us. May we rejoice in the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. May he become the light that enlightens every heart.
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