Christmas (Fr. Simham)

You may have heard the story of the little boy who was finding it hard to sleep at night. He called out from his room for his dad. When his father got there, the little guy said, “The longer I’m here, the darker and scarier it gets. Couldn’t you stay in here until I fall asleep?” “Son,” his dad explained, “nothing bad can happen to you here. Your Mom and I are right down the hall.” “I know, Daddy. But I’m scared.” “You don’t have any reason to be afraid,” the father explained, “God is right here in this room with you.” “I know, Daddy,” the little boy said, “but I want someone with skin on them.”

Christmas is the day you and I celebrate the miracle of God with skin on Him! This really is what the term “Son of God” means. And this is what the phrase “The word was made flesh” also means. When we call Jesus “the Son of God,” we’re not calling Him the junior partner in the God business or the son of God, the way Tom or Tim is your son. Tracing it back to its Semitic roots and uses, calling Jesus “Son of God” has the idea of His being fully God, only made known and visible to you and me. It’s what Paul is talking about in our second reading, when he speaks of Jesus as “the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature,” Who is “sustaining the universe by his powerful command.” Jesus is God with skin on Him.

St. John says “The word that became flesh” was with God in the beginning, and the word was God.”……. “Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him.”

After reading all this when I look at the baby in the manger, I am filled with a sense of wonder. How is it possible? This is little baby in the manger is your creator and redeemer. I say, enough! I can think any more. Let me just stare at him.

Secondly, this eternal Word has taken on him-self a human flesh. God is born in human flesh. Flesh in biblical language or in the language of spirituality it is not something good.

It is weak.
It is prone to temptation.
It is prone to sickness, pain and suffering.
It sets the parameters within which my soul can work.
And above all it dies. It is not lasting.
Yet, Jesus takes on this flesh. What does it mean? When St. John says, “The word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us”, it means a lot for you and me. It means:
He can feel the cold like you and me on a cold night and so he needed the swaddling clothes to keep him warm
He can feel the pain like you and me when wounded or hurt.
He can understand our temptations as he himself was tempted.
He can understand our hunger and thirst.
He can understand our need for love and belonging.
He can understand our need for security.
He can understand my need for a warm shelter.
He can understand the pain of the loss of beloved ones.
He can understand my sense of betrayed.
He can understand my need for friends.
He can understand my fear of death.

On the whole he can understand me, because he has become one like. I don’t know why they called it a mystery, but it makes a world of sense to me. It makes me to fall in love with the baby in the manger.

As St. Athanasius said, “God has become man, so that man can become gods.” Before you leave the church, go to the manger if possible, spend a minute or two looking at the baby in the manger and think of all what he become for you, and see what happens? Observe and see how you feel? May be, you’ll begin to admire him more. Maybe you’ll begin to take him more seriously. Or you may feel like getting away soon. See what happens! God bless you!

Fr. Showreelu Simham