Today I wish to bring to the forefront of our minds the Father, the
Heavenly Father, wellspring and inspiration of our earthly iconic Holy Family of
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
The love of the heavenly Father for His only-begotten Son at Christmas
is not generally adverted to, because people are emotionally enthralled by what
is so immediately understandable and strikingly beautiful for our human sensibilities.
When we think of Mary’s birth-giving love for her new-born, only born, God-Given-Son,
we recognize that he was the source of sublime joy and gratitude for her, and that
He is the pride and glory of our humanity, fallen though it be in us as yet. Nascent
as our Lord and Saviour, He was yet destined to become a blood-stained figure,
hated relentlessly by officialdom and ignored by the vast majority of those He
came to save from the wounds of their own willful sinfulness and relentless self-seeking.
As Saviour of Mankind, He was born of a people prepared by God for over
2,000 years for His coming, by means of experiences evocative of God, by prophetic
leaders and by their own growing religious awareness and the gradual structuring
of their society according to such God-given sensibilities. Ultimately they had become a people so endowed
as to find its culmination in the flesh and blood of the immaculate Virgin Mary
of Nazareth, through whom God was able to
prepare a suitable home where His own beloved Son might take on, assume, human flesh
as Saviour – perfect God and perfect Man -- Who, though He would be seen to be
of Jewish nationality, His mission would, nevertheless, be that very purpose
for which He willed to be thus sent from heaven to this earth, the salvation
of all mankind, be they of Jewish or pagan nationalities, citizens of historic
and cultural powers, such as those of Greece or Rome, or of yet more contemporary origin,
or be they simply members of Earth’s swarming and blindly warring tribes and dominions
of whatever ilk.
The unmentioned, heart-wringing, ‘love untold’ centre-piece of this most
beautiful and joyful day of Christmas is the fact that today the Father has deliberately
sent (Jesus’ own word) His beloved, only-begotten, Son into our world, knowing
full well that He would end-up being betrayed, deserted, ignored by all save
Mary and a handful of fearful disciples; knowing above all, that He would
depart this world leaving behind a body tortured to perfection by the world’s
supreme and most professional artists in such skills.
However, thus far, I have only told you the half of this divine drama …
it get’s much richer, much deeper, for the Father sent Jesus on that
prophetically foretold mission because He knew that His only-beloved Son wanted
to undertake it. That was because of His own, absolutely Filial
and self-sacrificing, love for His Father: because of His burning desire to heal His
Father’s rueful awareness that so many of those He had created in His own image
and likeness with free-will --- created them for their earthly joy and eternal
fulfilment --- had been led astray, deceived, by the angelic LIAR, Satan. Free will, what a gift! A gift
lost by Eve’s folly, Adam’s weakness, and Satan’s collusion!
Therefore, dear Catholic People of God, dear Orthodox and fellow,
original, believers with us, dear believers of less clear vision but
nevertheless total Christian commitment, rejoice that Jesus has come as man, indeed as God-made-man
for our salvation, to show us and enable us, how to use ‘free will’ for God our
Father’s glory and for our own fulfilment and eternal salvation; and to
teach us that this would be brought about by the indwelling of His ‘Gift’, the most
Holy Spirit of both Father and Son, through our Faith, our belief, in both the
Person and the Mission of Jesus.
Through that secret presence and mysterious working of God’s most Holy Spirit in our lives He will gradually form us into an ever-more authentic likeness of Jesus, for the glory of the heavenly Father, and for our ultimate and eternal destiny as sharers in the love and glory of the most Holy Trinity of life and love, yes, He will form us in Jesus as true ‘family’ of God, the Father of us all.
