Christmas - 'And the Word became flesh ...'

Recently a friend of mine was trying to recall the title of a song that she had heard on the radio. The word she wanted was on the tip of her tongue but somehow wouldn't quite come out. Eventually she turned to me in exasperation and said, "you know the one, its about love." At this point we both started laughing because of course almost every song that you hear on the radio is about love!

Despite this fact, musicians, poets and artists have not run out of things to say on the subject, and never will. Love has remained a rich vein of inspiration because, as sophisticated and as nuanced as our language is, words alone can never fully encompass what it means to love another. There is always something more to say. In the end, we can only express our love for our beloved via our entire person. We communicate our love not just by what we say. or sing, or paint, or compose, but by who we are and what we do. True love is expressed in relationships between persons. A love letter, even the most beautifully articulated, is always a poor substitute for the presence of one's beloved.

I think, to an extent, what goes for our human relationships is also true of our relationship with God. God, freely and out of sheer generosity decided to make himself known to us. Initially he spoke through the prophets, but even the words of the great prophets cannot fully communicate the love of God. Full communication demands full communion, therefore the Word of God became flesh, the Word of God became a human being: Jesus Christ, Son of Mary and Son of God. The love of God was revealed to mankind by a Man, by Christ's life of perfect love, and by his death and resurrection.

Today we celebrate and rejoice at the Incarnation, at God's entrance into the world. We also celebrate God's entrance into our lives. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that our religion is not based on a series of abstract premises or ideas, it is based on a living person, Jesus Christ. We can be tempted to keep Christ at arm's length, perhaps because personal relationships are so demanding. We do not feel we have the time or energy to engage in a dialogue with Jesus. In times like these i find it useful to meditate on the Nativity scene, stripped of all the sentimentality of so many of our Christmas Cribs: there we find a poor couple nursing their new born baby, who is God, in a barn - and they are full of joy.