A DIFFERENT NIGHT
Christmas encompasses a secret that unfortunately escapes all too many of those who celebrate «something» in those days without knowing exactly what. They aren’t able to suspect that Christmas offers the key to uncover the ultimate mystery of our existence.
Generation after generation, human beings have anxiously cried out their deepest questions. Why do we have to suffer, if everything within our deepest being calls us to happiness? Why so much frustration? Why is there death, if we have been born for life? People were asking. And they asked God, since somehow, when we look for the ultimate meaning of our being, we are pointing toward God. But God kept an impenetrable silence.
At Christmas, God has spoken. We now have God’s answer. God hasn’t spoken to us in order to tells us beautiful words about suffering. God doesn’t offer words. «God’s Word has become flesh». That is, rather than give us explanations, God has desired to suffer in our own flesh the questions, sufferings, and powerlessness.
God doesn’t give us explanations about suffering, but God suffers with us. God doesn’t respond to the why of so much pain and humiliation, but God Self is humbled. God doesn’t respond with words to the mystery of our existence, but God is born in order that God Self live our human adventure.
Now we aren’t lost in our immense loneliness. We aren’t sunk in pure darkness. God is with us. There is light. «Now we aren’t in solitude, but in solidarity» (Leonardo Boff). God shares our existence.
This changes everything. God Self has entered into our life. It’s possible to live with hope. God shares our life, and with God we can walk toward salvation. That’s why for believers Christmas is always a call to be reborn. An invitation to revive joy, hope, solidarity, fraternity, and complete trust in the Father.
Let us remember the words of the poet Angelus Silesius: «Though Christ were to be born a thousand times in Bethlehem, as long as he isn’t born in your heart you will be lost for the life beyond: you will have been born in vain».
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
