In many places, the Christ of Christmas is paradoxically buried under secular, neutral, “non-offensive” clothes, to the point that He becomes hardly visible and barely recognizable even though He was born to be of the Invisible God the visible image.

The snowman, Santa Claus, Père Noël, decorated cars and penguins appear visibly in the public square, on desks of offices and buildings, in the midst of a variety of garlands and lights but where is the true light, the light of the world, Jesus-Christ to be found?

In Neapolitan crèches, like the one we can see at the museum of the Cathedral of Lafayette and in crèches Provençales in Southern France, there are certainly dozens of figures of everyday life and animals in an elaborate environment. The center piece is indeed the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph and Jesus) and the three Wise man, along with angels and shepherds. What is therefore the true meaning of the Christmas holiday we are celebrating? This event has caused so much effervescence and trouble since the beginning. “When King Herod heard this (where is the newborn king of the Jews?), he was greatly troubled and all Jerusalem with him” (Mt 2:3)

Christmas is a historical fact

We believe that Jesus was born on December 25 th of the first year of our Christian era, Caesar Augustus being Emperor in Rome (Lk 2:1-2). Like many pilgrims to the Holy Land, I have been blessed to visit the little Palestinian town of Bethlehem, three times, even with the political tensions rising in the area. The grotto of Bethlehem still exists, enclosed In the Church of the Nativity. There is a silver star in the center of the grotto, with Latin words engraved: “HERE JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY.”

The little wooden crib in which Our Lord was laid also exists and can be venerated today in the major basilica in Rome dedicated to Our Lady, S. Mary Major.

Who is this child?

Was not Jesus announced by the prophets and expected as the Messiah? As I write these lines, I can hear the beautiful music of Handel’s Messiah that is graciously performed every year in our very town of Lake Charles: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called the Mighty God…the prince of Peace”. St Matthew’s Gospel is very informative in this regard, quoting the prophesies fulfilled in Jesus: “you, Bethlehem, … are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah, since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel” (Micah 5:2, Mt 2:6).

And also: “Behold, the Virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14, Mt 2:23). We believe that Jesus is God with us or as explains St John: “the Word of God made flesh”, the second person of the Holy Trinity becoming man. This is the great mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus has therefore a pre-existence in the bosom of the eternal Father. He is both true God and true man, eternal and mortal, what a mystery!

The reason for the incarnation

Let us listen to Gabriel the archangel: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him JESUS, because he will SAVE his people from their sins” (Mt 1:20-21). “Jesus” means “Savior”.

St Ignatius of Loyola invites us to meditate on how the Three Divine Persons look down upon the earth, filled with human beings, offspring of Adam and Eve. Since they see that all are going to hell, the gates of Heaven being closed on account of the original sin, they decree in their eternity that the SECOND PERSON should become MAN to SAVE the human race. When the fullness of time had come, “the WORD became FLESH and dwelt amongst us.” The Holy Child has come to save us by paying the ransom of his own blood when He will be in the fullness of his age, at 33 -years- old, on the cross. He knows it, he wants it, he will lay down his life for all of us because this is the greatest love that one can demonstrate. “God is LOVE”.

Theological and moral conclusion

He who is by nature Son of God has become FIRST-BORN amongst us who are made sons of God by adoption and grace, by our Baptism. “But all those who did welcome Him, he empowered to become the children of God” (Jn 1:12). We now can stand in a wonderful manner to Him in the relation of brothers and sisters. “Go and tell my brethren…” (Jn20:17) and again “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn20:17).

So great a God has become so little in this mystery in order to give us an example to imitate: humility opposed to pride, purity opposed to concupiscence, poverty opposed to attachment to wealth. The Beatitudes become the roadmap into the Kingdom of Heaven that the child Jesus has inaugurated in Bethlehem. That seems to me the true meaning of Christmas.

Let us therefore rejoice and not hide the child Jesus of the manger on his birthday, He is our Savior, my Jesus, “my Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28), “my King and my God “(Ps 5). MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Canon Jean-Marie Moreau is the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest at Saint Francis de Sales Oratory in Sulphur.