Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
The moment has finally arrived. After an Advent of preparation and anticipation, we welcome our Savior once again into the world this Christmas. However, many Christmases you have already experienced, this is a fresh opportunity to embrace the wonder, joy and mystery of the Incarnation.
In the Gospel for Christmas Eve we hear from Luke, the physician, the precise scholar for whom accuracy and detail were of primary importance. Luke first gives us historical and political perspective. This was the year of the first enrollment decreed by Caesar Augustus. Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary must travel to Bethlehem because of his family lineage. A lineage which will connect his soon to be born child to the foundations of Israel, to Abraham, the father of the nation and to David, Israel’s eminent king. Mary’s labor is upon her, and there is nowhere for them to shelter except a stable. The very human child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, and, lacking a crib, is laid in the animals’ manger.
In the Gospel for Christmas Day, the Evangelist John, the mystic, also tells us an origin story. He takes us to the very beginning of existence. Before anything else existed, there was the Word. The Word was both with God and was God. Everything that was created, that has occurred, that has life today is the result of God’s Word.
Two stories, very different and yet also the same. It is the duality of the Word, which existed before existence, and the baby Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem two thousand and twenty-two years ago that is the heart of our mysterious and magnificent faith. It is how all things came to be, and it is how we know each Christmas the Good News we are called to share with our fragile, wounded, and beautiful world. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, cannot, and will never overcome it. Merry Christmas!
I wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas and peace and joy in the New Year,
Fr. Paul
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