Christmas Day
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Written by Adam Fuselier
Merry Christmas, friends! The season of Advent, characterized by darkness and waiting, has given way to the light of Christ, the Promised One! The psalm that the Church invites us to sing and pray this week is interesting because it invites us to consider and embrace one of the great paradoxes of our faith. The psalmist proclaims: “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.” Yet, on Christmas Day, we celebrate Christ’s quiet, hidden, and most humble birth in very insecure circumstances: a dirty cave in a quiet hamlet in an altogether insignificant part of the world. Poor, lowly, and “unfit” for a King and Savior. How can we possibly see God’s saving power in such a setting?
G.K. Chesterton once wrote: “Our perennial spiritual and psychological task is to look at things familiar until they become unfamiliar again.” Perhaps those of us involved in ministry or active at the parish have a “go-to” response to the question: Where is God’s saving power manifested in the poverty of the Nativity? Put your “go-to” response aside for a moment and consider the question again… look at this familiar question with new eyes. Place yourself in the context of the time as one who has been brought up to believe in a coming Messiah who will restore Israel to its rightful place as God’s chosen people, who will elevate Israel above their enemies… this is how your Messiah appears. Seriously? Can you rejoice in this? Can you accept it?
Consider for a moment that the way that Christ came tells us something about why he came. God made himself entirely dependent in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus could not feed Himself, could not clean Himself, change Himself, He was dependent. The Savior of the world manifested Himself as one who needs. If we look closely, we are meant to get a good glimpse of ourselves. There is another paradox at work here as we consider this mystery: The more “secure” we become in our relationship with God, the more we feel and recognize our dependence on Him. The closer we get to him, the more we taste our need for Him. Understand this… our poverty and dependence isn’t a problem to be overcome, it is the solution to our mess. It is who we are. Christ wants us to have the very same security in our relationship to the Father that He experienced in the circumstances of the Nativity. Although the world around you might try and speak a different truth, you have everything you need in Him. He will come through, He will keep his promises, and He will take care of you. Our task is simply to allow Him to be God.
Perhaps at the beginning of this Christmas season, you find yourself struggling to see the saving power of God in your own life. Maybe you have felt poor, needy, and dependent, or even anxious and threatened. If you’ve felt or experienced any of this, perhaps the Lord is inviting you to rest in your dependence on God rather than resist it. Then, and only then, can we truly rejoice and have the eyes to see “the saving power of God" in every circumstance.
Adam Fuselier, first and foremost, strives to be a close follower of Christ and a beloved son of God the Father. He currently serves as Managing Director of Echo Community, a Catholic non-profit organization that shares the gift of the Theology of the Body through dynamic retreat experiences called ECHO. Find out more by visiting www.echocommunity.us.
Pray with today’s psalm.