Christmas Weekday

Gospel: Jn 1:29-34

Our faith is a faith of paradox. We believe that Jesus – Emmanuel, God with us – is already here, and yet each Christmas we celebrate him being born into the world. Like the Eucharist, this is more than a symbol, it is a deeper truth – we are called to recognize the Christ child’s birth into the world.

Although Christmas Eve and Christmas Day receive the most attention, “Christmas” is actually a season that lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany. On that final day of the Christmas season we remember the three wise people who visited the Holy Family and had – well, an epiphany. In encountering the infant Jesus they had a sudden, intense revelation – they were beholding Our Lord, made flesh here to dwell among us.

In today’s Gospel, John recognizes Jesus coming toward him and without hesitation shouts his witness. During Christmas we must ask ourselves, do we recognize Christ approaching? Do we recognize the people and experiences in our lives that are begging us to draw closer to God, do we notice the spiritual gifts that come from unlikely places, do we have the humility to learn from the little one, the “less than”, the stranger?

Perhaps Christmas is a season because recognition, much like birth, is a process. We are not always blessed like John, who understood immediately that Jesus was the Holy One he had been awaiting, now approaching. We are not always willing to let go of our pride or our individualistic notions of “fairness”, as John did in admitting Jesus may be arriving after him but ranks ahead of him. We are not always open to epiphany, that glimpse of seeing how God sees, as was John when he perceived the Spirit descending upon Jesus.

As we continue moving through this season, let us pray that our bodies, spirits, hearts, and minds may be unfalteringly open to how Christ is being born within us and throughout the world. Let us pray that when that recognition is complete we may be bold enough to testify that we have seen God – alive, now, here with us in the world.

Teresa Thompson is a CTA member.