1-1-10 THE BISHOP'S VOICE: The eternal mystery of Christmas
Bishop Michael Sheridan, S.T.D.
Jan 8, 2010 10:00 AM

Christmas Day has come and gone once again. What endures, however, is the eternal mystery that is Christmas. Christmas is a specific moment in our human history. On that day, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became a finite creature born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What we can so

easily forget or ignore is the fact that this God-man has never departed from us.

If you really give yourself to contemplating the mystery that is Christmas, you cannot help but be overwhelmed by what took place. God did not have to become a man like us. God did not even have to create us. Why, then, did God become man? It is because, in the words of St. John, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . ." (Jn 3:16). It is divine love alone which can explain the most extraordinary event the world has ever known.

The incarnation of God’s son took place because man had sinned, and only God could redeem sinful man. But our question is still not answered. Could not God have saved us simply by an act of his divine will? Why would he enter into our human condition? In the eternal plan of God he wanted to become human so that he could suffer and die for us, so incredibly profound is his love for us. Yes, God became man so that he could endure the cross.

Having taken our humanity to himself, having suffered died and risen to eternal life, Jesus did not shed his humanity. He lives now for all eternity in his glorified humanity and promises that same heavenly glory to us who remain faithful to him in this life.

Isn’t all this enough? What more could God do for us? How much more could he possibly show his love for us? By remaining with us until the end of time, remaining with us not simply spiritually, but in his very body and blood. It is the most holy Eucharist, the enduring presence of Jesus Christ in the world, that prolongs the mystery of Christmas. What a privilege it would have been for any of us to have been present in Bethlehem for the birth of the Savior. But we are no less privileged whenever we are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

But there is still more. In the Eucharist, Jesus is not only in our midst. He comes to live within each of us whenever we receive holy Communion. Now we can at least begin to fathom the depth of God’s love for us. He became a man to suffer and die so that we might live forever. He did not leave us orphans after his resurrection, but instead provided a most sublime means of remaining with us always in the sacrament of his body and blood.

I sometimes believe that the only thing that is more difficult to comprehend than the incarnation of God is why so many who have been saved by Christ so readily abandon him. It is said that the "denomination" that is second only to Catholicism is that made up of former Catholics.

We are now two weeks into our four-week television outreach called "Catholics Come Home." It is my prayer that this program will touch the hearts of many who have drifted from the practice of the Catholic faith, and drifted also from the Eucharist, the sacrament of our very salvation. Already I have heard a number of accounts of those in whom the grace of God worked through these TV invitations. One teenager who saw the "Catholics Come Home" spots walked three miles to attend Mass. He hadn’t been to church in over a year, and now he is coming back home. May there be many, many more!

Each Catholic can directly participate in our "Catholics Come Home" outreach. Most of us have family members or friends or co-workers who have departed from the practice of the faith. What a wonderful thing it could be if each of us were personally to invite just one such person to come back to the church. That invitation may well be the grace that saves a soul.

Every year far too many Catholics observe the liturgical celebration of Christmas, not to be seen again until the next Christmas. This is not why God became man, so that we could give a nod to that marvelous event just for a few moments each year. God’s love demands that we return that love every day of our lives by the obedient living out of our Catholic faith. I humbly ask that you share the faith which means so much to you with someone in need of that witness. What rejoicing there will be in heaven over one lost sheep that is found!

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, another great feast of the Christmas season. It is Mary who, by her obedience to God, gave the world its Savior. Let us ask her help as we try now to bring our friends back to their Savior. Mary is truly our Mother, and she wants nothing more than to gather all her children back into the one family of her Son. May the birth, suffering and death of Jesus not be in vain for any soul.