The Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ – Christmas
Galatians 4:4-7; Matthew 2:1-12
Feast of our Lord. Holy Day of Obligation.
Read Galatians 4:4-7
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
St. Paul tells us that Christ’s coming to earth occurred “when the fullness of time had come.” It might suggest that everything was in order, but this hardly the case. The only ones seemingly prepared were the Mother of God and Joseph, but only after an angelic dream convinced him The shepherds were astounded and stumbled to the stable late. Herod was beguiled and sent his men to slaughter the innocents, hoping to catch the newborn King in the mix, the one who posed a threat to Herod’s own fleeting power.
Biblically speaking, “the fullness of time” is not when we think we are ready, but when God deems it so. In fact, the fullness of time can perhaps be translated as the time when we are most desperate. We are filled to the brim with chronos, that is, time as we know it in this world. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux says: “The fullness and abundance of temporal things had brought about forgetfulness and famine of eternal things. It was at the moment when temporal things held sway that eternal things opportunely arrived.” Stuffed and sickened with chronos, Christmas reveals the incisive intrusion of kairos, that is, “God’s time” to restore our hearts and minds to focus on the eternal.
At the end of 2020, when so much has been taken from us—time, health, work, security, peace, just to name a few—The Christmas miracle returns to us renewed what we count as loss. Time is transformed when the eternal one enters it. Our health is transformed when the physician of souls and bodies becomes a human being. Our work, security, and our peace is likewise renewed by the one who works to establish his reign of peace on this earth.
The sheer surprise of the 1st century is contrasted by our own liturgical tradition, which prepares us for Christ’s coming anew:
Bethlehem, make ready, Eden has been opened for all. Ephrathah, prepare yourself, for the Tree of Life has blossomed from the Virgin in the cave. Her womb has become a spiritual paradise in which divinity was planted. If we partake of him, we shall live and not die like Adam. Christ is born to raise up the likeness that had fallen.
What shall we return to the Lord for this restored likeness that he has given us in the “fullness of time”? Saint Paul makes it clear: we are to give him the fullness of our heart. Brimming over with the spirit who has been sent in our hearts, we are to cry out “Abba, Father.” In our own tradition, the Ode 1 Irmos at Matins gives us a script of exuberance to return to the Lord, which joyfully takes over our common greeting throughout the season: “Christ is Born! Glorify Him!”