Christmas

Our Advent days are now fulfilled. We began with a precious new gift given to us by the Lord – a gift of time. These beautiful liturgies were filled with many voices, the Voices of Advent. For the first three weeks of Advent it was the voices of the ancient prophets we heard, telling us that God has a new plan for our lives; announced with ancient words but with new expectation for us today. For this last week of Advent, it has been no less than the voices of angels awaking us from the slumber of doubt and unbelief; announcing, “He is here!” The second Preface of the Advent liturgy summed up the message conveyed by all these voices – For all the oracles of the prophets foretold him, the Virgin mother longed for him with love beyond all telling, John the Baptist sang of his coming and proclaimed his presence when (at last) he came. Now in this new gift of time – 2016, a new Christmas begins. Now it is not only about hearing a new message, but also seeing it fulfilled. The Second Preface of the Christmas liturgies tells: “For on the feast of this awe-filled mystery, though invisible in his own divine nature, he has appeared visibly in ours; and begotten before all ages, he has begun to exist in time;” – in this our new gift of time. The people of the Old Testament knew well no one can see the face of God, not even Moses on the mountain of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus, we read:  But, (God) said, "You cannot see my face, because a man cannot see me and live." The LORD said, "Look, there is a place near me where you can stand on the rock; and as my glory passes by, I'll put you in a crevice in the rock, and cover you with my hand until I've passed by. Then I'll remove my hand so you may see my back, but my face must not be seen." Ex: 33:20 But God wanted us to be able to see him face to face. That is why we have this day, so that we can see our God, face to face. But not only does he come as one of us, but as a baby child into who’s face we can now gaze with tenderness. Now we may say that in a literal sense it was only they who lived during Jesus time on earth who actually saw Jesus face to face. Perhaps, but, as for presence and intimacy with Jesus we are not left out. Today, when you approach this altar to receive Holy Communion, there in your hand you are holding Jesus, with the same intimacy as were the people of that first Christmas day. In his real and true presence in the Eucharist, we behold our God, face to face. While gathering together these reflections for this Christmas message I came across this Christmas song composed by Francesca Battistelli, a contemporary Christian song-writer and singer. The title of the song is, You’re Here. Bellow is a video of her performing her song.

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