Merry Christmas!

Image courtesy of the Mission San Jose Dominicans

Today we join the world in celebrating the feast of the Incarnation, "The Word Made Flesh" who continues "to dwell among us," the gift of Emmanuel, God-With-Us. Yes, we celebrate Christmas and the love of God so deep, so unconditional, so timeless, that God sent Jesus to us. A baby born surrounded by the wrappings of physical poverty in a borrowed stable in the cold of winter. His birth witnessed by his young mother and foster father and the native creatures. His birth heralded by angels to a group of shepherds keeping watch over their flocks that night. The shepherds drawn to the place of his birth to adore on bended knee. And the three kings of the East who would later come to find Him, too.

God loves each and everyone of us so deeply and wholly that Jesus came to earth taking on the human flesh of a baby to be one with us and to save us so that we might have life eternal in and with Him.

It is true that for Christians Easter is the feast of feasts, but actually the redemption story has its roots here on this day, the feast of the Incarnation of Christ. Yet our celebration of Jesus coming to us is not limited to today. We have the opportunity to re-celebrate it in each Eucharistic encounter with God where the Word re-takes His dwelling within us and we experience in all trueness the living gift of Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Merry Christmas, my friends! Whether or not you are fully in the Spirit of the day, may the Christ Child whose birth on earth we celebrate gift you with a special reminder of God's love for you and God's abiding presence within you.

Merry and Blessed Christmas!!