Christmas has three seasons. There is what we might call the secular Christmas shopping season, during which we see stores putting out Christmas decorations and products as early as Halloween. I enjoy it – and I like the fun holiday decorations.
But, as Christians, we have two other seasons: the holy season of Advent and the Christmas season from the Nativity to the Baptism of the Lord. The season upon us now, Advent, is a time to prepare our minds and hearts to celebrate the coming of God into our world.
True, we might be buying things to give as Christmas gifts. But we are conscious that our gifts remind us of the greatest gift of all time. God has given his own son to us as our savior and redeemer. We give to each other humble gifts of love to celebrate God’s greatest gift of love – Jesus Christ.
But the gift of God to us is different from any other gift. The gift of God enables us to share the very life of God. To put it another way, God became human so that humans might become God. St. Paul said it so well: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
As I’ve said before, every other food we eat turns into us, sometimes too much of us. But the Eucharist turns us into God. As we feed on the Body and Blood of Christ, we become the Body and Blood of Christ.
It’s so easy to say those words, and so hard to live them. And yet we know that living like Christ has changed the world. A small number of followers of Christ in the first century has grown to more than 2 billion followers of Christ today. Despite conflicts within the church and persecutions from outside the church, the number keeps growing.
Only Mary and Joseph heard the cries of the infant Jesus more than 2,000 years ago. But today billions of people will celebrate that birth. May we allow Jesus to be born in us, and to change our hearts and change our world.
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