O Holy Night is a timeless Christmas hymn that can touch us deeply. In the first v. we hear, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining
till He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth.”
That verse captures the depth of the mystery we celebrate now: God loves us so much that the Father sent his Son to defeat evil for us and to be one of us. Together the Father and Son gave us the Spirit to empower us to continue the Divine Presence and lead others back into an intimate union with God, making his presence felt by what we say and do.
But who is this Jesus, whom Isaiah alludes to as God-Hero, Prince of Peace, who always existed yet whose birth we celebrate today? Let’s begin with the way we speak about him at Mass. Listen to what we say in the Creed:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
Consubstantial, a word we don’t use often, means that the Father and the Son, and the Spirit for that matter, have the same substance. Simply put, the essence of God is the same for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This word tells us both who Jesus is and who we are. We are that portion of God’s creation, whom God loves so much that He became one of us, and died on the cross for us. God knows what it is like to be human! In v. 2 of O Holy Night we hear, “He knows our needs, our weakness is no stranger.”
God wants us to see our worth! God sees every single one of us as unique reflections of His Beauty, His Truth and His Goodness. God tells us often in Sacred Scripture that we are His and He is ours. He values us. Do we value God?
Now, some of you might be thinking, “I haven’t made much time for God. I am busy with my family, with work, and with many other excuses for not attending Mass and worshipping God. I desire to pray, but I admit there are days, weeks, and even months, when I don’t talk to God at all.” And the Lord, who is merciful, says to you, “I love you. Let me into your life, and I will always make time for you.”
And there are some who claim, “There are things that I have done, or I am currently doing that God would not like. How can He still love me?” And God says, “I can and do love you because I see who you are capable of being. I absolutely refuse to give up on you. Stop giving up on yourself.”
And there are those who might say, “I have done some thing that is horrendous. Why would God want anything to do with me after that?” And the Lord says, “You are hurting, and I do not want you hurting. I want you to be at peace with life and with yourself. Come home to me and accept forgiveness.”
And then there are those around us, in our family, our nation, and throughout the world, who are treated by many as the rejects of humanity. They are the children starving today in Africa. They are the people being persecuted for their faith in Asia. They are the refugees from the Middle East seeking safe havens. They are the unborn whose lives are seen as an inconvenience and the elderly whose lives are considered a burden. They are the mentally challenged and physically incapacitated who depend on others to survive. They are the ones whom Jesus identified with when he told us that we care for Him when we care for them. “I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (MT 25) Those who need us are our means of returning love to God. Their lives, like ours, have infinite worth in God’s eyes. For that reason, we are urged to be merciful like the Father.
A few years ago before he retired, Pope Benedict XVI once concluded a general audience by saying, “We cannot remain inert before a God who loves us so deeply.” What an interesting word, inert! Inert is the opposite of motion, the opposite of action. We are challenged to respond to God’s divine love with love. We cannot be inert. We cannot act as though nothing has happened. Christmas has happened. The Divine Presence has become One with Us. And now, we must do our part to transform the world. In v. 3 of O Holy Night, we hear, “Truly he taught us to love one another, His Law is love and his Gospel is peace.”
We gather from near and far to hear again the story of his birth to rediscover Jesus. In the past we have all discovered him; otherwise we would not be here. Some of us know Jesus intimately; others know him only as a nice guy, a man born in Bethlehem who later died on a cross. We all know him as a person who changed the course of history. But do we give him the chance to change the course of our lives?
At Christmas, the Church calls us to come home to Jesus Christ to be one with him. No matter who we are, we need to rediscover Jesus, not just today but from this day forward. I invite every family to take a copy of this book, Rediscover Jesus to better know him in this year of mercy.