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One of the Christmas songs you'll hear on the radio during these days is called
"Grown-up Christmas List." It speaks of the fact that age does not stop
us from dreaming, and that as life goes on, our wishes at Christmas are not for
ourselves, "but for a world in need." The list begins, "No more lives torn
apart, that wars would never start…that right would always win."
Do we dare to hope for these things, just because the calendar says December
25 is approaching?
Indeed, the question for a Christian is, "How we can dare not to hope for
these things?" Christmas lists, after all, spring from Christmas hope, and
Christmas hope is based on an historical fact: God has already given us
everything in His Son. St. Paul asks, "He who did not spare his own Son, but
gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us
all things?" (Rom. 8:32).
We look for good things in life, and good things are all around us. Yet the
best of good things does not satisfy us completely. The best relationships leave
something to be desired, and the best vacations always end and leave us looking
forward to the next one. This is because every good thing is just a reflection
of goodness itself.
In the birth of Christ, we find that total, infinite goodness. "For in
Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9). "The Son
is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being" (Heb.
1:3). In the birth of Jesus Christ, almighty God has given to the human
family His last, best offer of hope.
The wonder of Christmas, in fact, is that the promised coming of the Messiah
of the Lord was fulfilled in a surprising way that surpassed the hopes and
dreams of the people of old. On the first Christmas night, angels announced
Christ's birth to the shepherds. But instead of saying that Jesus was the
Messiah of the Lord, they said that He is "Messiah and Lord" (Lk.
2:11). God, in other words, did not simply send someone to represent Him. He
came Himself!
Christmas is not about the birth of a child who became a great man. It is
about a God who created the human family, and then decided to become a member of
that family. Christmas is not when Jesus began; it is when Jesus began existing
as one of us, and thereby joined all of us to Himself. He joins to His
Divinity all who share human nature: the weak and strong, the small and big, the
born and unborn. Christmas is universal, and is about the exaltation of the
human person.
That's why our "grown-up Christmas list" can say "no more lives torn apart"
-- whether by abortion or anything else. Christmas lists spring from Christmas
hope, and Christmas is all about the victory of life!
Columns from 2008
