God’s gift to us
The First Sunday after Christmas, December 26, 2021
Isaiah 61:10-62:3 • John 1:1-18
A happy and blessed Christmas to you all, this beautiful morning!
I hope that you all enjoyed a sweet and cosy Christmas Day yesterday, recovering from all the excitement of Christmas Eve so filled with wonder, beauty, trumpeting flying angels, startled shepherds and stampeding sheep!
God’s gift to the world, not delivered privately and hygienically to the rich and famous, but given as directly as possible to the heart beat of the people: in the back streets of a bustling city: an infusion of life-giving grace. A whisper of a word.
A whisper of a word that that has been with us since the beginning of time. The word that is with God, and is God. The whisper of the word that stirs the waters. The word that is both heard in the first newborn breath and our last rattling sigh: the alpha and omega that never cease.
We had known the word in the world around us, but we needed to bring it home. Yes, God was in the thunder, in the fire, in the stars, but God was more. We needed to know that the word lived in us: that we also embodied the word, along with all creation. And so God gave us Jesus, God’s son. Jesus who was both one of us and of God. Jesus, God’s incarnate son, the word made flesh.
God’s gift to us. That amazing gift that is noticed more for its effects than its fancy wrapping paper. It didn’t seem to have come from any expensive store, and yet its effect on the solar system, the angels and the sheep was startling.
We noticed. And today we continue celebrate the birth of Jesus in that lowly stable. We have spent the season of Advent rehearsing the ancient prophecies, the words and actions of the herald John the Baptist, the visitation of the angel to Mary and Joseph. We have moved with the excitement of the culture around us, making our lists, our travel plans, buying and sending cards and presents, bringing trees into our homes, decorating them with sparkling lights and ornaments, and singing, let’s not forget the singing!
But now the gift is here: the gift for which we have been making such elaborate and time- honored preparations. And now what? We know that much of the world that surrounds us will just keep steaming forward without a backward glance. Finishing the last drops of Egg Nog, packing up the Christmas decorations, tossing the bare trees onto the streets and bringing out the hearts and other pink Valentine’s Day paraphernalia.
But, does it have to be that way? If we move too quickly through these days, we risk forgetting, even missing the extraordinary revelation of God’s incarnation in our world. We risk losing the opportunity to linger and consider its world shaking implications.
The Word has always been with us: whispering through the whole of creation. Now we have no excuse for thinking it’s out there somewhere. Now we know that just as the word was born, incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, this same word breathes and lives in each of us. God’s gift to the world. God’s gift to us, each one of us: no-one is left out.
I encourage each one of us to try to linger in this holy space of both remembering and realizing for as long as we can: maybe for these twelve days, maybe the month, the year, perhaps even the rest of our lives. The truth that is revealed each Christmas doesn’t disappear as soon as the year progresses. We just tend to stop seeing it when all the sparkle and pizzaz has faded.
That each one of us is a child of God is incomprehensible mystery. And yet the Word of God has been breathed into each of us since the beginning of time. This is a gift to be lived, a word to be spoken, moment by moment. A gift that continues to be birthed within us in every heartbeat of the universe.
To conclude in the words of our Gospel hymn:
Word of God, come down on earth, living rain from heaven descending Touch our hearts and bring to birth faith and hope and love unending Word almighty we revere you, Word made flesh we long to hear you.
James J Quinn SJ (1919-2010).