At Christmas Eternity Is Making A New Start.

At Christmas eternity is making a new start--strength to the weak, bread for us, God becomes human.

Some reflections on the meaning of Christmas--

Nobody was excluded from the crib. Like me, you were late in coming...Yet you came and were not turned away. You too found room before the manger. Jesus is the patron of all latecomers; let these ones not be forgotten before the throne of God. Outsiders and latecomers, Jesus has room for all. Ox and donkey, shepherds and magi.

The incarnation means that in Christ God has become more accessible to us. In Christ God loves us with a human heart, and God’s power to save and heal is in human form. This is the meaning of Christmas: God bonded with us forever, love laid in the crib and later upon the Cross.

The birth of God as man means that man is not his own master, and that he cannot construct his own destiny; he must continually come to grips with his own creaturliness, continually experience his own weakness, continually rising above challenges, entrusting oneself God.

Let Christmas push you back into the human race.

For through the incarnation, God embraced not only what is agreeable in the world, but also whatever is weak and imperfect in our lives. He has taken upon himself everything that is marked by sin, but there is no sin in him.

Jesus came into a world ruled by the military might of the Roman Empire; he was born to a people who had been conquered and were being oppressed by their conquerors. Yet, at the time of Caesar Augustus, the empire enjoyed a facade of peace.

However, the Peace announced by the angels by the birth of Jesus was a new and lasting true peace that was now available to all who seek it, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

The continual need to allow Jesus to save us by his intervention into our lives.

Will God come and save us from our materialism, from our grief, from our brokenness? From my loneliness? From our stress? From my addiction? My burden?

Jesus shares our ups and downs of human existence, and he gives us a share in his divine life, brings brightness and hope into our hearts, and gives us confidence of our future.

She gave birth to her firstborn. The word firstborn indicates that Mary had no children prior to Jesus; it does not imply that she had children after him. For example, there are ancient grave markers for Jewish women in that area who died during child birth which read, “In the pains of giving birth to a firstborn child, fate brought me to the end of my life.” So, firstborn is a religious legal title which simply means that the child has privileges as specified in Deut. 21:5 and the child must be consecrated to the Lord in Exodus 13:2 and Numbers 18:15. The fact that Mary had no other children after Jesus stems from her being a perpetual Virgin.

However, we are called to be firstborn too. The Bible distinguishes between those who enter Heaven straightaway, calling them "the church of the firstborn" (Heb. 12:23), and those who enter after having undergone a purgation, calling them "the spirits of the just made perfect." (Heb. 12:23).

This encourages us to keep on playing our part in the task of completing the Saviors work of bringing justice and salivation into the world. Like the shepherds and magi who had a journey to make known the truth.

O Come let us adore Him.

Silent night. Holy Night.

The ego gets what it wants with words.

The soul finds what it needs in silence.