John Henry Newman once said that the great principle of the Faith is the Incarnation; what might be called the enfleshment of God.
The Gospel for Christmas Eve refers to the Word of God, through whom the whole of creation came into being, entering into the shabbiness, tear stained, compromised world and shared it with his creation. And he did this so that we might enter into a relationship with God.
The Church Father’s used to used the saying that “God became man so that man might share in the life of God.” This is a most extravagant claim but is absolutely central to what it means to be a Christian.
The liturgy of Christmas Eve is not a nice piece of theatre just as what we do on Easter Day is not. We proclaim to the world the miracle of the Incarnation. God with us; not like some odd Greek diety but as one of us. When we pore over the Gospels we see in Jesus that imprimatur, the stamp of God himself in utter vulnerability.
We see in his life the love the God has for us for he is God. God speaks to us with the greatest of clarity in the Bethlehem baby who was too weak to even lift his head and yet was and is more powerful than any Caesar of yesteryear or today.
In the Christmas narrative we see how God communicates in an angels “Ave” to a Galilean girl who was the chosen Theotokos; the Mother of God.
It is our job as Christians to proclaim this to the world, to invite men and women, boys and girls to put their trust in temporal authority, or be frightened by the changes and chances of this fleeting world but in “the Word made flesh who dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” The deep seated flaw in humanity will not be made right through political and economic institution but by the grace and power of God that challenges those institutions to walk in his way in mercy and in love.
We pray do we not for “Thine kingdom come” – well it all began is a stable 2,000 years ago; keep The Faith, keep on praying.