About three years ago in June, the Pope gathered the Dominicans, they were in Rome, and at their General Chapter he addressed them. He made the remark at that time that the time in which we live there=s a tremendous denial of the mystery of the of the Incarnation. Namely, that it=s hard for people to accept that the second person of the Trinity took on human flesh, dwelt among us, and lived in the fullness of grace and truth.

        Of course there are some people who would say that they claim to admire Jesus. Others value his teaching. But basically in their lives Jesus is far away either 2,000 years ago, or somewhere up in heaven and the impact of the presence of Jesus doesn=t touch their daily lives. So Jesus remains remote, distant. Jesus only can be close, near, when we know him, when we love him and when we obey him. Then he can make an impact in our lives. This comment of the Pope is of no small significance and if you really reflect on it, it should make you a little bit disturbed.

        Let=s look at some of the reasons why the Pope can make this kind of statement. When you don=t really believe that the second person of the Trinity became man one of the common, powerful concepts that floods the world today, and I=m afraid even the Catholic world, is that religion is a private affair. It=s between the individual and God. As we paid attention to the recent election some politicians could be in opposition to the teachings of the church and still think they are catholic. Even the bishops did not really come out with a strong, unified stance to show there=s a connection between professing the faith and what happens out here. What happens with our social life, our political life and our economic life? There can=t be two kinds of lives in the Christian life. Yet, precisely Jesus came to make our whole life full and rich. Those who follow him, they extended his love to the whole world. All you have to do is look at the history of the saints and you see it.

        Let=s take one recent one. Padre Pio was a Franciscan Cappucian in San Giovanni, he just didn=t pray he transformed the whole town by being the real power behind raising a hospital of high quality in San Giovanni and it exists to this day. What his staff couldn=t do he prayed and he was the instrument of healing for a lot of people.

        The second place where we can see that when people don=t really fully believe that Jesus is the son of God and became flesh among us is that the view of life, their purpose in life, gets diminished and therefore their anticipation and their expectation is less and when you start doing that what happens? Then you begin to focus on the body and only what you do and before you know it you start moving toward discouragement, if not despair, and your joy moves toward depression.

        The third one that I could pick is rather clear. When you don=t really believe in the Incarnation of Jesus you really don=t value and respect and love life. This should be very obvious to almost anyone once I mention a thing or two. Not only do we have problems today of abortion but now euthanasia is spreading so people who are just simply tired of life they can get permission and it=s legal in some countries to simply put their selves out of existence.

        I remember reading an article about a couple who was suing a hospital because the child that was born had some defects and they were blaming the doctors for not recognizing it and aborting the child and their argument was something like this: If the child knew that it would be born with defects then surely it wouldn=t want to be. They took it to court, fortunately they didn=t win. What does that say? That says the evaluation of a human person is simply on the exteriors.

        Jesus reminds us this is a powerful new life he has given us. Maybe the one reason is people don=t really realize what this life is like. So maybe we have to read the Lives of Saints and the mystics especially because they tell us that if you saw just for a flash of a second a person in the state of grace, in the state of glory, you would prostrate yourself before that person thinking they were God. Because God is so generous in giving his divine life to us that there is hardly a difference between the glory that=s given to the saints and God.

        You can see the proof of this in the book of Revelation when John meets the angel who is in glory and John is prostrating before him. The angel says, ADon=t do that!@ He pulls him up, AI am a creature like you.@ Every person that believes and is open to God=s grace has a life that=s way beyond any value you can put on anything in this world.

        We really have to see that when we celebrate the birth of Christ this is no small event. It is absolutely significant for our lives. So let me give you an image to start with. In a homily by a priest in England about the ninth century he=s talking about the Holy Family going to Egypt. He said: AWhen they went to Egypt they couldn=t find a place to dwell so they went into a temple. When they went into the temple the Blessed Mother holding Jesus all the idols fell face down before Jesus. The word got out in the town and the Duke in that area was Afradisious, he gathered his army and goes and investigates. When he comes in and sees all the idols flat on their face before the child, he, himself adored Jesus and then he went out to talk to his army. He said: A God must have been here otherwise our idols would not have prostrated themselves this way and we better do it otherwise something terrible would happen to us.@

        It=s a good image of what happens when we put Jesus first in our life. When Jesus is first in our life diminishes, shrivels up, and wipes out all the idols in our life. What=s important in this feast is really that we come to Jesus, it=s not just necessary, it is absolutely necessary because God, first of all, loved us so much that he became a little baby. Who could be afraid of a baby? He made himself totally approachable by anyone, any time, any place. We should have no fear whatsoever of coming to the Lord. If you are in a state of sin, then go to confession, the sacrament of reconciliation because Jesus came precisely to take away our sins. He is God=s pardon. He is God=s forgiveness to us. Therefore any one and everyone can come and receive forgiveness from the Lord.

        Another strange thing, God is now our brother. He has become a human being and therefore is in total sympathy with the struggles and difficulties we have in life. Another beautiful thing is he=s a baby with arms and now he can hug us, embrace us, and draw us to his heart. We know that he had his heart pierced open so that we would have room in his heart.

        The real important response to this feast is that we take out time to really draw near Jesus and expect to find a place in his heart to be able to see that when the eternal, the ineffable, the infinite Word of God became a human being, he lifted us up into his own divine life and that=s really what the meaning of Christmas is.

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