"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will."
A hundred and forty-one years ago the Prussian Chancellor, Bismarck, attempted to crush the Church with the Kulturkampf. He failed. Translated, this is the “Culture War” which we face today, especially in Europe and the United States. Stalin tried something similar, though more saunguinary, taunting “How many divisions does the Pope have?” Blessed Pope John Paul did not need any tanks. Neither did the apostles and their successors in the early Church need Legions to gain freedom for the Church in the face of the might of the Roman Empire.
These battles, along with our Culture War of today, are fought without weapons, often despite dungeon, fire and sword being used against the innocent followers of Christ. We do not win every battle in this peaceful struggle, but we know that with Christ as our champion, the Nazirite, the new Sampson, over the centuries, and in the end, the final victory of the truth of God incarnate is assured. He has conquered, we follow Him.
We only need to look upon the crib to see how Christ once again comes to our aid against the dictatorship of relativism in our own time. When the very foundation of our society, the family, based on the mother and father who are espoused to each other, is under attack from the redefinition of marriage by our Government and others, along with the destruction of the unborn and the manufacture of life in the laboratory; we gaze lovingly upon the Holy Family.
God could have simply created a human body and soul for Christ without the intervention of any mother. Instead He chose in His infinite wisdom, to call Our Blessed Lady and ask her to give birth to His Son. God could have arranged for Jesus Christ to be cared for by angels. Instead He chose to call St Joseph to be His foster-father. The crib, the simple model which we humbly put up in our Church and in our homes for the glory of God now takes on a significance that previous generations would not have imagined even in their nightmares. The image of the Holy Family protests silently in support of the natural family created by God. The Christmas crib is today a banner of freedom in Christ, the protection of human life, and the sanctity of the family.
The message of Christ bursts forth anew in every age, whatever the forces of evil throw against it. When faced by popular opinion, manipulated by the mainstream media, we do not need to flounder in doubt or succumb to the well-oiled secularism of the BBC. Our Lord said to the apostles “He who hears you hears me.” He is the Word, certain in all his ways and certain in every age, continuing to teach us through the magisterium of His Holy Catholic Church.
He came down to earth humbly. He, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, chose to share the weakness of human nature. We endeavour, in our witness to the Catholic faith, to make some reparation for the neglect which is shown to the great act of divine condescension by which “He came down to earth from heaven who is God and Lord of all.”
We kneel before the figure of a child, knowing that in truth, we are nothing before the living God-made-man whom that figure represents. We submit ourselves to Him: not only in the acts of penance and charity that we make for His sake, but also in the submission of our minds to His truth. We conform our judgements and our opinions to His, for he is the creator of the universe, the One who was awaited by the prophets and sages, the One who was greeted by the Blessed Virgin, and the One who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
We rightly swell our voices to sing Venite adoremus, “O come let us adore Him.” Let us indeed adore Him and rejoice in our God who comes so close to us. He was born in a place on our earth called Bethlehem. He comes to every place on earth where the Roman Catholic Mass is offered daily. He comes to us tonight once again on this glorious feast as we gather in our little corner of the earth called Blackfen.
Let us bow down with the shepherds and the Magi and say “My Lord and my God! I adore you! I praise you! I will live and die in loyalty to you in the Holy Catholic Church which you founded for me as the ark of salvation. May I never separate myself from you again through sin. May I give glory to you with the angels and praise you with them for all eternity!”
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will."
A very happy Christmas to all readers. I will remember you at the Masses on this beautiful feast day.
