Nothing equals the joys of Christmas except the mysteries of Christmas. For believers, the mysteries begin with the Incarnation of God becoming a babe, born of a virgin, arriving poor on earth in swaddling clothes in a manger lit only by a distant solitary star the very shape of God whose tips of the fingers held the same God from whose tips planets and comets and suns had fallen.
This, to Christians, is an exquisite mystery that passes all understanding, and yet they believe because they can understand the mystery with the mind of their faith. Believing a story too magical to be true is part of the reason Christmas makes people childish and sentimental.
Of course, for non-believers the Christmas story about the divinity in a stable is pure fable. There can be no mystery to them that they had rejected the truth of the story in the first place. Apart from this, they do not accept anything beyond the border of reason and the province of the senses. And there are some among them who are so sure that God does not exist.
The most that assorted unbelievers could concede is that Jesus Christ was an extraordinary man with magical powers to inspire and captivate masses of people, a great teacher, perhaps, a[prophetButanysuggestionthathewasGodorGod-Manisforthemtoomuch[prophetButanysuggestionthatthewasGod-Manistothemjusttoomuch[profetaPerocualquiersugerenciadequeéleraDiosoDios-Hombreesparaellosdemasiado[prophetButanysuggestionthathewasGodorGod-Manistothemjusttoomuch
But Christmas has some built-in mysteries even for the most unbelieving. And these mysteries are all the more puzzling to them precisely because they do not believe, rejecting all tools of perception except reason. There are facts about Christmas and Christ that are settled, known, admitted by all. It is these facts that have generated enigmas that have disturbed and baffled non-believers.
How is it that of all the thousands of magnificent men who walked this earth, only Christ had become the main measure of the life of mankind? In the calendar of human existence, he occupies a central place: all years and centuries after him are listed as before Christ, before Christ, and all years and centuries after him are marked as AD, after death. As if the whole world revolved around him. .
Why does the whole world, Christians and non-Christians alike, celebrate the feast of his birth, now approaching the year 3000, like no one else?
Bishop Fulton Sheen, America’s most beloved preacher, once said that Good Friday was necessary. “There would be no Easter Sunday if it weren’t for Good Friday.” Couldn’t it also be said that Christmas is more necessary? Without Christmas, neither Good Friday nor Easter Sunday would have happened.
Once again, there is the eternal quality of his Church. From Peter to Pope John Paul II, the heritage is intact. Stalin once mocked the Pope in Rome” “How many divisions does he have?” One could imagine the envy that consumes those who deny Christ even his credentials as the promised Messiah. One sees the same stubbornness, despite the overwhelming evidence , which has given the The Jewish people have many problems.There are those who would seek revenge.What cunning efforts they make to obscure or twist the meaning of Christmas.
Note that some Christmas cards and advertisements speak only of “Yuletide” or “Season’s Greetings.” The word Christmas is avoided at all costs. There is no reference to the Nativity. The Christmas trees that replace the nativity scenes could be part of the subtle campaign to subvert Christmas.
Christmas celebrates perhaps the most important event in the life of the world. It is a love story between God and the world. It is a love story between God and man, the divinity humbling himself to share humanity with man. Let’s take care to celebrate Christmas with meaning, without trivializing it with jingles, baubles and tinsel.
