Christmas Is Forever

The gospel reading on Christmas is the beautiful and lyrical intro to the Gospel of John, which must have been originally one of the hymns sung by the early Christian communities. It proclaims how God created everything there is through His Word and how in the fullness of time, His Word became flesh and lived among us. The same Gospel of John would end with the Resurrection experience and how that experience changed his life and he came to believe.

Seasons come and go. Christmas is already two day ago. And everywhere, every time, things are changing. Kings have come and gone. Empires have flourished and faded. Economies have risen and fallen. Yet, Christmas has lived on and been celebrated continuously the past two thousand years.

Go back another two thousand years and a people is born in the most humble and humiliating of circumstances. A band of slaves flee from the mightiest empire at that time, led by Moses under the protection of a God who promised them a land flowing with milk and honey.

Go back yet another two thousand years and there is a old nomad wandering in the deserts of an ancient land. And he is visited by messengers from a God who asks him to go and do His bidding and he would make him the father of many nations. Thus, Abraham became our father in faith.

In faith, these people looked back to the beginning of time and realized their call to faith was the same call that uttered the Word and the universe came to be. Today, these same believers respond to the same call and look forward to the fullness of time when they will be given the fullness of life.

This is what we celebrate on Christmas: the Word through whom all things were made coming down to pitch His tent among us.

Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
~ Psalm 97

On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we do not know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
John 20:2-8

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