And the Word became flesh’ (Jn 1:14).  Behold reality: ‘God is now all in all’.  This is the miracle of Christmas: God has become flesh of our flesh, embodied in the totality of human life. God’s total gift of his own life given in his Son, given to us, given for us, unconditionally.  ‘O silent night, O holy night’:  this beautiful Austrian hymn depicts this reality in its lyrics and music.  It is a silent night…it must be a silent night but why silence one may ask?

BEHOLD, WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME, GOD SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD!  

The fullness of time is NOW as Christ is ever being born anew in our hearts and our world.  In the words of Abbess Kathy:

Today (hodie) we stand in the ambience and reality of the ‘first Coming’, of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, this great gift of God’s beloved Son.  Today we celebrate this historical reality.  And this is not all: Today (hodie) we stand with open hearts of faith as we behold the ‘second Coming’, the birth of Christ personally to each one of us and to the expanded horizon of our Church and our world.  Let us never forget this: God’s incarnation is on-going and it needs each one of us, alone and together, to embody God’s life that is always coming into our lives.  

May the presence of Emmanuel, God with Us, fill our hearts with joy, give us hope for the future and help us carry the burdens of this life.

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)