Pastor's Corner
December 25, 2016 - Christmas
What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:3b-5
The events of Christmas seem far removed, and we may think God does not act as powerfully as he did in the days of Herod, and that God came among us and then left.
The Father sent the Son as a light in the darkness, St. John says, and that light shines – present tense – in the darkness. Jesus not only shines in darkness, but exposes the darkness. In the inhospitality of the citizens of Bethlehem to the pregnant Mary and her husband, in the slaughter of the innocents, and especially in the cross, we see how a dark world responds to light.
But that response was not universal. Some believed. Some became disciples, and through the gift of faith experienced the transforming power of grace. They received new life – His life – and they became light in the darkness, too. And suffered much the same fate as their Lord and Master and God.
We should expect the encounter with Jesus to be convicting. The light exposes our darkness and we see how we have become slaves to sin, how we have hurt others, how desperate our condition is. Often I am convicted by the faith and goodness I find in the lay faithful and in my Dominican brothers. The temptation is always to act like many Pharisees and scribes did when they met Jesus: to somehow detract, to find some flaw (real or imagined) that distracts me from my need to be healed and converted.
We needed a Savior, and we still need Him. Thanks be to God, Jesus is still God-With-Us: in the sacraments, in the scriptures, in His Body, the Church. He still invites us to choose to follow Him, to be forgiven, healed and to receive the gift of new life. We do not have to remain as we are. We can become children of God. That gift can be opened any day of the year. Even today