Is it fake news or the real thing? Today, major media operates on fake news to stir up the masses to act according to their wishes. Lies abound and tempers rage because the left didn’t get their way. Now here comes Christmas which reminds us year after year that God has entered human history for a single purpose: to make salvation a reality. Journalist may excel in phony stories but God trumps them all with the reality of the Incarnation. There are two facts that must be understood: first, that God’s love never changes and second, our love for Him must change.
Without a moment of hesitation we turn to the Love of God for us and realize that sin caused that divine Love to become the most real event in human history. Imagine, if you will, any good father who comes to know of his son’s disobedience to mom. The father will seek to correct the sin and encourage his son to follow the path of obedience. We who are the sons and daughters of Our Father know that we have spread the act of disobedience and broken our fidelity to God. God is faced with a dilemma. Should He wipe us out and begin again? Or should He seek one who would obey totally and give example to the wayward children?
Since God cannot deny His own nature, His Love seeks a Son Who would enter the human race and pay the ransom for all the disobedient. Humbly the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, responds to the Father saying: “Here I am, Father, send Me.” Now the time is ripe. Rome rules the whole world politically. The Jewish people are divided into four kingdoms indicating the division which will bring about its end. Into this historic reality comes a voice crying out in the desert: “Make straight the path of the Lord.”
Born of a priestly family and rejecting the world and its privileges comes a man, a prophet, and even more than a prophet…John is the precursor of the Lord. He comes in the spirit of Elias in order to call the wayward children to repentance and humility. Through the purification of their souls, the way of the Lord is made straight. Those who understand the reality rejoice in the gift of salvation through the One sent by the Father. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Yes, it is true that the meek will receive all that they need to attain to the kingdom of God through their detached use of the world’s goods.
“Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God.” Marvel of marvels vision comes to those baptized in the Jordan water confessing their sinfulness and desiring to return pure in heart. Can this reality of purity speak to the sexual revolution of modernity? Consider a Jewish speaker of the name Ben Shapiro who says clearly that virginity prior to marriage is a power that testifies to the depth of love in his marriage. As he claims this truth the audiences respond with thunderous applause. The message of John to repentance and purity of heart resounds again as most important for the life of society. This proclamation echoes the traditional truths revealed by God and written in every aspect of creation.
True science can never correct its Maker. Instead science corroborates the presence of the divine love in every cell found in soil, plants, animals and human beings. It is the Cause that initiates every other cause with all their effects. It calls us to respond. Responsibility is the key to our personality development. The greatest responsibility we have is to care for the soul within which eternal Love placed there. Love calls for our love. Our love increases through our imitation of the obedient Son of God. What wonders come to us when this reality is recognized and proclaimed. Never let any opportunity to share this love pass you by.
Christmas calls us to conserve the truths and traditions of our faith. The testifier is God Himself Who is unable to lie. He does not seek to “fake” us out as the modern journalist does but His credibility is tangible in the babe of Bethlehem. Rejoice in this love and love Him in return by joining all that you say, think and do to the heart of our Mother Mary who knows how to love God best. Let your love flow through her heart and then we cannot help but please Our Father and heal the wound our sins have caused.
May you have a very blessed and holy Christmas,
Fr. Richard Voigt
Comments are closed.