Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Celebrating the Incarnation of God
Christmas is but a few days off. In the United States this year there is a lot of discussion in various media venues about the use of the expression Merry Christmas as opposed to Happy Holidays. Some Christians are making a big deal about it, seeing the use of the generic “Happy Holidays” as an example of society trying to take Christ out of Christmas. Personally, I think the effort to promote to use of “Merry Christmas” at stores like Target and Wal-Mart is wasted. I do think that Christians ought to take seriously the needed effort to prevent the Gospel from being marginalized in our society, but I don’t think this is the issue to focus on.
The Christian greeting for this season in English is unfortunate, I think, but, come to think of it, the English forms of other Christian hallmarks are also less than poignant. “Happy Easter” is even more insipid than “Merry Christmas,” and the word “Lent” conveys nothing relevant to the season it names. In Spanish speaking countries do they have the issue with “Feliz Navidad” that we do with the English phrase?
In my opinion, Christian leaders would better spend their energy in this season to make the true significance of Christmas better known, not just to non-believers, but also to the many who name themselves as Christians but don’t really know what they are claiming by that name. At Christmas we are not just commemorating the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem, but more importantly we are proclaiming the fact of the Incarnation of God.
The beginning of the gospel of John, which is read at mass on Christmas, deliberately echoes the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning ….” Genesis says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and John says “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” and “all things were made through him.” The creation was the work of the Word. And “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The one who is the source of all things, who holds everything in existence, who is by nature completely beyond our comprehension, took on our nature and took a place among us.
I am continually struck by the fact that the heresies that developed in the early centuries of the church and threatened to destroy it all centered on the question of who Jesus of Nazareth is. It took several centuries of struggle to come to the clarity that is contained in the creed: Jesus is truly God and truly man. He is the Word through whom all things were made, and he is a man who truly suffered and died for us.
At Mass on Christmas, when we say the creed we kneel to give special recognition to this truth, that God became man in Jesus: “by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”
It is worth pondering.
(Here is a link to a site on the Creed: http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm)
The Christian greeting for this season in English is unfortunate, I think, but, come to think of it, the English forms of other Christian hallmarks are also less than poignant. “Happy Easter” is even more insipid than “Merry Christmas,” and the word “Lent” conveys nothing relevant to the season it names. In Spanish speaking countries do they have the issue with “Feliz Navidad” that we do with the English phrase?
In my opinion, Christian leaders would better spend their energy in this season to make the true significance of Christmas better known, not just to non-believers, but also to the many who name themselves as Christians but don’t really know what they are claiming by that name. At Christmas we are not just commemorating the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem, but more importantly we are proclaiming the fact of the Incarnation of God.
The beginning of the gospel of John, which is read at mass on Christmas, deliberately echoes the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning ….” Genesis says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and John says “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” and “all things were made through him.” The creation was the work of the Word. And “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The one who is the source of all things, who holds everything in existence, who is by nature completely beyond our comprehension, took on our nature and took a place among us.
I am continually struck by the fact that the heresies that developed in the early centuries of the church and threatened to destroy it all centered on the question of who Jesus of Nazareth is. It took several centuries of struggle to come to the clarity that is contained in the creed: Jesus is truly God and truly man. He is the Word through whom all things were made, and he is a man who truly suffered and died for us.
At Mass on Christmas, when we say the creed we kneel to give special recognition to this truth, that God became man in Jesus: “by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”
It is worth pondering.
(Here is a link to a site on the Creed: http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm)
