Dear Editor, Christmas is a birthday. It is God’s birthday as a man.
One of the most important verses in the Bible reads: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
God gave a human face to his love. The second person of the Trinity took on our human nature. He loved the down and out, the maltreated, and the poor, and He was all merciful to sinners.
Christmas, once a sacred feast, has become, for many, a secular festival. It seems that these days, by November 1, retailers are advertising the holiday without much regard for Christ’s precepts. It has become easy to overlook the fact that some 2000 years ago God entered into history, and history entered into God. With his birth, Jesus became the central figure in a world that’s become more demonstrable of people acting out than of them thinking through.
We’ve learned to associate with Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Christ child, the theme of peace on earth to persons of goodwill.
We have heard many times the well-worn saying from Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9). It seems that God chose a simple manger to shelter the newborn Prince of Peace as a demonstration of proper humility and love.
We should remember that by lying in his crib in Bethlehem, Jesus was beginning the horizontal journey on earth that ultimately brought him to the vertical life found upon his death on the cross at Calvary. This Lord of Christmas is a Savior who has shown us that there are better things to come.
This needs to be a message for the world to consider at a time when the powers of greed, hatred, and exploitation prevail. Even in this proverbial winter of discontent, where the reign of darkness and the loneliness of mankind abound, Pope Francis and other religious leaders still pray for that Christian ideal of the first Christmas - peace on Earth.
The ultimate responsibility and decisive choice lie with all of us, and we can choose to demonstrate an intention of treating all people with kindness, regardless of our differences. What a New Year’s resolution that would be! As 2024 approaches, and we contend with brutality around the globe, let’s hold tight to those most reassuring words: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
Peter Wibell, Rutledge