The gift of the Incarnation is the answer to the longing of every human heart. We long for God, but our sin and fear keeps us from surrendering fully to Him. All of us battle habitual sins that, deep down, are a reflection of our own fear and the lies we have bought from the devil. We fear the demands of discipleship. We want to cling to our own truth. Our sins enslave us and keep us from the ultimate happiness we are made for. We are constantly in a battle against ourselves, the world, and the enemy.
Christ came that we might have “life and have it abundantly”. He wants each one of us to be transfigured by His loving gaze so that we can dwell in His truth, peace, and love. We are tired and overburdened by the demands of this life. He wants to show us the way to true happiness (beatitudo). It is in Christ that we come to understand the meaning of our lives and the ultimate answer to the yearning we experience deep within ourselves.
The light of God’s face shines in all its beauty on the countenance of Jesus Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), the “reflection of God’s glory” (Heb 1:3), “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). Consequently the decisive answer to every one of man’s questions, his religious and moral questions in particular, is given by Jesus Christ, or rather is Jesus Christ himself, as the Second Vatican Council recalls: “In fact, it is only in the mystery of the Word incarnate that light is shed on the mystery of man. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of the future man, namely, of Christ the Lord. It is Christ, the last Adam, who fully discloses man to himself and unfolds his noble calling by revealing the mystery of the Father and the Father’s love.
St. John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth, para. 2.
Christ reveals the extent of the Father’s love for us, and by becoming the Incarnate Word, He shows us the joy that we are made for in Him. He seeks to heal our broken humanity by taking on human flesh. We cannot truly come to understand ourselves or the joy we are made for apart from Him.
Our greatest struggle is in keeping our eyes fixed on Christ while we surrender in trust to Him. The demands of discipleship are great and we know this deep down, even if we pretend that we can follow Him through half-hearted attempts. We are easily swayed by the goods of this life at the expense of the much greater supernatural goods.
Called to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, “the true light that enlightens everyone” (Jn 1:9), people become “light in the Lord” and “children of light” (Eph 5:8), and are made holy by “obedience to the truth” (1 Pet 1:22).
This obedience is not always easy. As a result of that mysterious original sin, committed at the prompting of Satan, the one who is “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44), man is constantly tempted to turn his gaze away from the living and true God in order to direct it towards idols (cf 1 This 1:9), exchanging “the truth about God for a life” (Rom 1:25).
Man’s capacity to know the truth is also darkened, and his will to submit is weakened. Thus, giving himself over to relativism and skepticism (cf. Jn 18:38), he goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself.
Ibid, para. 1
It is easy to see how those within our culture fall prey to relativism and the lies of Satan by turning away from God; but even those of us who seek to follow Christ give ourselves over to many of the same lies on a daily basis through our own sins. Whether mortal or venial sins, whenever we sin, we are telling God that we will not serve Him and we will not surrender our lives to Him. We tell Him that we are the arbiters of truth, not Him. We give into false idols or turn ourselves into false gods.
The Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, is an opportunity for each one of us to once more come face-to-face with the Incarnate Word who is light and truth Itself. If we open our souls up to Him, then He can shine His healing light within us in order to heal us of our weaknesses. Through this renewed encounter, we must be willing to surrender our own autonomy to Him. He cannot enlighten our hearts and minds if we continue to hold onto our sins, wants, and desires that are counter to His will.
Our surrender is absolutely essential, but we cannot will our sanctification for ourselves. Christmas is a reminder that we are in constant need of a Savior. In our brokenness caused by sin, we cannot raise ourselves to God through our own strength. It is precisely through the vulnerability of the Christ-Child in the manger that we are reminded of our vulnerability, frailty, and weakness. It is there that God condescends in our need in order to unleash love and grace upon the world. It is through the grace poured out upon us at Baptism—and through the other Sacraments—that He gives us the strength we need to persevere in faith in order to overcome the lies of the world, the devil, and our own Fallen flesh.
Love and life according to the Gospel cannot be thought of first and foremost as a kind of precept, because what they demand is beyond man’s abilities. They are possible only as the result of a gift of God who heals, restores and transforms the human heart by his grace: “for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:17). The promise of eternal life is thus linked to the gift of grace, and the gift of the Spirit which we have received is even now the “guarantee of our inheritance” (Eph 1:14).
Ibid, para. 23.
It is through the gift of grace that we are transformed in Christ. Christmas is an invitation for all of us to renew our commitment to follow Christ more closely in order to allow Him to shine His light upon the world. This can only be accomplished through our surrender to His invitation. It is not only the world “out there” that struggles to conform to Christ; it is each one of us throughout our daily lives.
Conversion is a daily process. May we abandon ourselves more fully to His grace and healing light this Christmas.
