Christmas - Mass during the night
We've all wondered how exactly Santa Claus manages to
deliver toys to millions of children around the world in just a single night.
Flying around on a sleigh pulled by flying reindeers without colliding with any
other aircraft or being shot down in restricted airspace, stuffing all those
toys in a voluminous sack that seems to have an endless capacity, squeezing his
triple XL frame through incredibly small chimneys, wearing a loud red suit that
cries to be spotted and yet no one does, doesn’t help to corroborate the
credibility of the story. Everything clearly defies logic. You are compelled to
either conclude that there is something truly magical about Christmas or that
the whole affair seems outright ludicrous and impossible. If you think that
this story is incredible, what about the real story of Christmas – how God
leaps down from heaven, and crawls into a stable where animals were housed, and
found residence there.
And yet, this is the night on which we celebrate the
impossible that has been made possible. To borrow a phrase from G.K.
Chesterton’s Christmas poem, ‘The House of Christmas’, “Things that cannot be,
and (yet) that are.” It cannot be that we should find God in a dirty stable,
what more, laid in a manger meant for food fit only for animals. It cannot be
that here we would find in this tiny defenceless child, divinity and humanity
wrapped in love, a marriage of heaven and earth sealed in a manger. It cannot
be that God chose to be homeless in order to bring us home. This then makes the
story of Santa Claus pale by comparison. But again, “things that cannot be, and
(yet) that are.”
We should not be afraid nor embarrassed of joining with the
unbelievers, critics and skeptics in saying that our belief in Christmas is
unbelievable. Let’s be honest - It is unbelievable! It requires nothing short
of a miracle. Just consider what this celebration entails.
It is impossible
for something infinite to be bounded by margins. And yet it has actually
happened.
It is impossible for that which is outside time to be affected by time. And yet it has actually happened.
It is impossible for a virgin to bear a child. And yet she has.
It is impossible for that which is outside time to be affected by time. And yet it has actually happened.
It is impossible for a virgin to bear a child. And yet she has.
It is impossible
for the intellect to apprehend the ineffable. And yet it has been handed to us.
It is impossible
for God to become something other than God without ceasing to be God. And yet
it has actually happened.
Our faith is
impossible, irrational, incredible, incredulous, incomprehensible, and unbelievable.
And yet we believe it, because it is true. It has actually happened.
There are miracles
galore in the Christmas story. “Things that cannot be, and (yet) that are.”
The great Western Father and Doctor of the Church, St
Augustine, captures this point so beautifully in one of his Christmas sermons, “He lies in a
manger, but He holds the world...
He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but He gives us the
garment of immortality... He finds no room in the inn, but He builds a temple
for Himself in the hearts of those who believe.” And in another steering
sermon, this holy bishop reminds us that “He who filled the world, did not find
a place at the inn. Placed in the manger, He became our food.” Truly a paradox
if you think of it. The manger, a filthy feeding trough meant for animals,
contains food for immortality, the antidote to death, the elixir of life.
Christ becomes spiritual food for us, bread for the world. In Bethlehem, which
literally means “the house of bread,” the Bread of Life is born. Incredible,
right? The world is simply outraged and screams, “Unbelievable!” They would rather
settle for Santa Claus than for Christ. And yet, “things that cannot be, and
that are” on this special night.
Everything about Christmas is so improbable. And yet it is
all true. We celebrate the things that cannot possibly be....And yet they are.
We celebrate God’s unfathomable love, a love that will not be defeated nor
limited by the natural restrictions of creation, the enormity of human sin, the
incredulity of man, the width and breath of man’s intellect. Christmas indeed
makes possible what man has always dismissed as impossible. It brings together
the greatest of all opposites: God, who surrenders His power to become a
helpless infant. The One who lives in the freedom of eternity binds Himself in
time. He whom the universe could not contain chose to be confined within the
womb of a simple mortal woman. God - a simple, unchangeable spirit - takes on
corruptible human flesh. This is the greatest jest of all. Chesterton expressed
it in these words: “And on that sacred jest the whole of Christianity doth
rest.” Yes, Christmas is the celebration of that sacred jest, the mirth of God,
in the bringing together of opposites in a surprising, unexpected and frankly
impossible way. And yet, “things that cannot be, and (yet) that are.”
Tonight, we celebrate the night of miracles. That’s good
news for all of us. However, for some of you Christmas will be lonely this
year. Some of you are carrying heavy
burdens today. Some of you are facing a financial crisis that looks hopeless to
you right now. Some of you are out of work and don’t have a single lead on a
good job. Some of you are looking at a marriage that seems worse than hopeless.
Some of you are estranged from members of your own family. Some of you have
children who are far away from God. Some of you feel lonely and far away from
God yourselves. The list goes on and on. But all these things have this in
common: they seem impossible to be solved by any human means. And for the most
part, they are. After all, if human means could have solved your problems, they
would have been solved long ago.
Remember this: Christmas is all about miracles. God
specialises in things thought to be impossible. He does the things that we
can’t even imagine. And only in Him, things that cannot happen, can happen;
things that cannot be resolved, are resolved; an every impasse that cannot be
broken, will find a break through. In
fact, God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we ask or can
imagine. When things don’t make sense or arouse fear in your mind, trust Him.
Trust in His word. Trust in the One who speaks impossible things and make them
happen. Trust in the One who can make the darkness of this night as bright as
daylight, and He has.
Whatever home you
have to return to tonight, or even if you have no home at all, know that your
true home is just outside that soft circle of light within the Bethlehem
stable, as you kneel beside the shepherds. Let us therefore crawl and creep, nay, let us
run with speed to the manger of Our Lord and Saviour, or in the words of
Chesterton, “to the place where God was homeless and all men are at home.” Here
in this little manger, you would find the Miracle of Miracles. God in the
flesh, our Redeemer, our Saviour, our most trusted Friend. Gloria in excelsis Deo! Merry Christmas!
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