Readings for the Feast of the Nativity (during the day):
Isaiah 52.7-10 Psalm 98.1-6 Hebrews 1.1-6 John 1.1-16
How interesting that the Church, for the mass of Christmas Day, after the story of the nativity told in the night, leaves off from that charming narrative to speak to us in the language of theology and philosophy, albeit it, very poetically.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…”
I don’t know if the liturgical advisers to the Pope, most pre-eminently, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, have ever given thought to the condition of most mass-goers on a Christmas morning – likely having begun to make merry the night before, how drowsy they might be at the morning celebrations.
Perhaps they have, and nonetheless decided this really is something that must be proclaimed, must be said, so as to clarify in our minds just what it is that is being celebrated in all its actual scope and magnitude – yes, there’s a baby in a manger, but don’t let appearances deceive! The Word of God, Wisdom Himself, came into the world, He brought the potential for total enlightenment, a comprehensive system of belief, thought, philosophy that would free humanity. As G.K. Chesterton wrote,
“… every other single system is narrow and insufficient compared to this one. . . Had Plato and Pythagoras and Aristotle stood for an instant in the light that came out of that little cave [in Bethlehem], they would have known that their own light [their own philosophical system] was incomplete.”
We can apply the same observation to any of the newer philosophies and ideologies that have arisen since Chesterton’s day. All these “-isms” and ideologies, theories that claim to explain who we are and how we are to live so as to attain some sense of peace and oneness with the universe, they always fall so short of their aim when critically examined. But in falling short of their target, they also have a regular tendency of landing with destructive force on us all because their deficiencies prove to be quite fatal flaws.
The coming of Christ and the renewal of the world is not to be taken as a naïve call to love: being Christian, if you look long and hard at the Church’s history, is quite often rather unpleasant; and it is so because of who we proclaim to be our Lord: The Word of God made flesh.
I’ve spoken in past years about the Greek term that underlies the English translation of today’s passage. When we hear the word “Word” that is a translation of the Greek term “Logos” which, as with so much of Greek, is one option among others to express the idea of a “word.” But the choice made here was “logos.”
What is expressed in “logos” is the idea of rationality; and again, to clarify, not human rationality, but Divine Reason: pure rational thought that proceeds from absolute truth. Such words aren’t merely for communication, but are the stuff of thought – and we understand that when God creates, it is his Word expressing his thought that brings the universe and all that is in it into being.
I make that distinction from human rationality because all of these ideologies and isms, these theories and revolutionary creeds that keep coming around in our history, can often appear to be quite rational, but they aren’t because they do not create knowledge, they do not innovate for human benefit, but rather their corrupt reasoning is used to dominate others, to wield power, to compel others against true reason to do as they are told.
If you know anything about the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union, you will be familiar with the singular criterion for determining if an assertion, be it in the area of physics, botany, human psychology or biology was legitimate was whether or not it conformed to socialist ideology. It really didn’t matter what evidence you might have, that you had the math right, the actual proof derived from the scientific method, if it conflicted with what the government’s message was, it was wrong. Truth was no proof, it was no defense. Rather, one was thinking incorrectly.
Divine Reason proceed from the truth of things, not the fantasy of how we might want things to be. The coming of the Christ, the Word of God to live among us comes of that selfsame Divine Reason. Simply put, we need Him.
We cannot rescue ourselves from our sad history, our successive attempts to supplant God with technology – we like to build our own versions of the tower of Babel with dull repetitiveness – it always ends the same, tumbling down, or sinking under the waves like the great ship Titanic.
We are prone to nominate a saviour from among us: be that a Roman Emperor who is declared by His senate to be the very son of God; or the latest political prodigy to grab the attention of the media. As with all of them, and their feet of clay, they and the empires they build topple over and shatter.
The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo, an actual contemporary of our Lord, though one who lived in Alexandria, Egypt wrote extensively about the necessity of the Logos’ coming because a world without the Logos was like a human being living inexplicably without a mind. He wrote, “The head of all things is the eternal Word (Logos) of the eternal God, under which, as if it were his feet or other limbs, is placed the whole world.” (Q&A on Exodus, II, 117)
What bothered Philo so much, as he looked around at the madness of the world, at the arrogance of the Roman Empire and its rulers, was the question of when would the world regain its sanity, when it would it be put back into its right mind?
Well, the Logos, the Word, that rational mind, has come, and He has lived among us; and still so many do not know Him. Dismissing Christ as yet another myth, Christianity as yet another human superstition, they prefer fantasy, self-delusion, intoxication, that fast leads some to madness, many to despair. For most, though, there is simple melancholy resignation that this is all there is: a birth into murky chaos, a frenzied life lived both in sunshine and under dark skies, and a death that delivers one into a silent abyss devoid of light. Yet among these latter folks, many harbour the suspicion that it can’t really be so; but would we call that hope? An inkling of a hope that keeps them looking for the slightest glimmer of light in the night?
Well, today the proclamation speaks to that slightest hint of optimism. “Our God reigns” – and we say that because truth and justice and love cannot be defeated even as a long war is waged against these by the world and those enslaved to power.
In that dark Bethlehem night, by the light of the star and even greater light has come, “the true light which enlightens everyone” who comes to it, be they humble shepherds or magnificently robed magi. To all who receive Him, and believe in Him, He gives the power to live as children of God, children of light, children of wisdom, understanding, guided through this life and into the next by the Word, the Logos of God.
Amen.