I’ve deeply appreciated John Michael Talbot for many years. His music and his life has shaped my heart. And I found his Christmas letter this year beautiful. Merry Christmas!
We have seen a lot in the year, months, and weeks prior to Christmas 2012. Just to name a few, we have seen the devastation of one our most populated areas in Hurricane Sandy, the murder of our diplomats in Benghazi, and now the tragedy at Sandy Hook where the smallest school children are massacred in the seeming safety of their own small town school. It is too much for us to fathom, or even emotionally take in. But there is comfort and an answer beyond what the world can offer in Jesus. This is what we liturgically celebrate every Christmas.
Even in the midst of life’s tragedies and trials Jesus is ” Emmanuel,” or “God With Us,” and He is our truest and most lasting Savior if we will but turn to Him. As our culture becomes increasingly secular, it is good to pause and make sure that Christmas remains a “Christ Mass.” There is so much significance to this emphasis.
The Christ Mass only makes sense in light of the Incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus. “In carne,” means “in flesh,” or “in meat.” Jesus is not “in pollo,” or “chicken!!” No, He is really and fully in human flesh. That is why we often call Him “Son of Mary,” or “Son of Man.” But He is also fully God. He has no human father. That is why we call Him “Son of God.” He is the perfect hypostasis of the human and divine in one true man and true God! That is why we call Mary the “Theotokos,” or “bearer, and Mother of God.”
This wonder is accomplished through another perfect union of the miraculous and the humble. Jesus is God Incarnate, but εκενωσεν (from κενοωkenoo; from which we get “kenosis”), or “emptied” himself in both the Incarnation, and the Cross, which could not have occurred without the Incarnation. He is announced by the miracle of the Star for the Magi, and chorused by the angelic Gloria, but is born in a Manger, a stable for lowly animals. He is the Creator, but is created in flesh of the Virgin Mary. He is beyond space and time, but is bound to space and time in the Incarnation, without losing His omnipotence. He knows all things in His divinity, but is bound to human knowledge regarding everything but His mission in the Incarnation. And this occurs not as separate realities, but as one mystical Paradox of paradoxes. This Paradox will reach its climax in the Paschal Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection, but this could not happen without the Paradox of the Incarnation.
While the Incarnation is too wonderful to even put in words, it is also good to meditate on the continuing Incarnation in the Church. We are, indeed, the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:27) As St. Paul says to the Romans: “12: 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” As St. Theresa of Avila said in her prayer: “Christ has no body now, but yours.” That Christ would work His perfect holiness through imperfect and even sinful human beings like us is another most remarkable paradox in Christ.
But the wonder certainly does not stop here! It is sacramentally extended in the Mass, or the celebration of the Eucharist. St. Paul also writes in his First Letter to the Corinthians: ” 10: 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Jesus calls the Eucharist His “body and blood” in The Gospel According to Matthew: “10: 26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
In the Eucharist Jesus is truly Present to us, as later generations expounded, “Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.” His Incarnation is not something from the distant past. It is NOW, and the miracle is sacramentally happening before our very eyes in our midst at every Mass. This Real Presence was clearly attested to in the earliest writings of the Church, and was used as a proof against those who believed that Jesus was not fully the Word Incarnate, or human. This was sacramentally attested to in a way beyond human words in the very ACT of the Eucharist.
But there is more! The early Church clearly understood this Presence as not only a memorial supper, but also as a sacrifice. That is why they used the language, not only of “table,” but “altar,” for the Eucharist. They called the presiders not only “presbyters,” or ” leaders,” but also “priests.” This was to offer the “sacrifice of praise,” (Hebrews 13:15), but also the sacramental, or unbloody sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for each and all of us in the sacred mystery of the Eucharist. This is because the Eucharist is both a memorial of the one sacrifice of Calvary (Hebrews 10:12), and a sacramental extension and repetition of that Sacrifice of sacrifices.
In other words: Jesus loves us enough not only to be fully present and sacrifice Himself for each of us 2000 years ago, but also TODAY, RIGHT NOW, at every Mass! This reduces me to wordless wonder at every Mass if I but mediate on this ineffable truth. This is, of course, a Paradox too much for us to fully understand or speak of in human words. It remains the ineffable Word Incarnate, and reduces us to worship and wonder based on divine truth and love.
ALL OF THIS MEANS that the Incarnation of the Word in Jesus is more than just a remarkable theological construct, but is immediately and deeply personal for those willing to accept Him. It is personal, and it is intimate. We must respond personally to receive this divine gift at every Mass, but especially this year at Christmas.
This Christmas take some time to ponder the vastness of this Mystery of mysteries in the birth of the Christ-child. While the world revels in secular humanistic and pagan hedonism, take some time to reflect on the sacred. Sit quietly before the Christmas Tree and Manger and ponder the birth of Jesus. Go to Mass and listen to the wonderful Christmas music. Receive Jesus in the Eucharist. Enjoy the God given graces in family and friends. Share the lasting wealth of simple gifts. BUT MOST OF ALL: Let Jesus and the Mass be the unquestioned center of your Christmas this year. Then we will know the real Reason for the Season throughout the all our years, and into all eternity in Christ. Have a Holy Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Peace and Good in Christ!
In Jesus,
John Michael Talbot
Founder, Spiritual Father, and General Minister
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity
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