As I read the texts for Christmas Mass, I am drawn to pay attention to two important motifs; one has to do with the motif of mountains and its ethical summons. The other has to do with the incarnation as an event that summons us to embody an ethics of neighborliness. In this brief reflection, I will weave these two motifs together as we ponder on the beauty of this day in the lives of those who believe in the risen Christ.
As a little boy, I spent countless hours running up the little hills and mountains in my neighborhood. In fact, mischief was also part of the reason for climbing these hills and mountains to have a view of the surroundings. I loved to play with my friends in our neighborhood, and as is the case with children, we always got our clothes dirty. My parents did not like that. So, to ensure that we were not caught unawares by our parents, one of us had to keep watch to ensure that we spot our parents returning home from work. One’s task was to alert everyone so we can have time to head home and clean up before our parents notice. For some reason, this experience is prominent in my mind as I reflect on the reading from Isaiah (52:7-10).
However, Isaiah offers a provocative vision of the mountains. Rather than us going up the mountains, as I alluded to in my recollection of my childhood, the bearer of good tidings descends from the mountain and announces the enduring peace of God. Among the joys of the mountains are the visions of the restoration of the sacred dwelling of God, which is itself on the sacred mountain of Zion. The visions also showcase the transformative power of the gift of God over the world and all who put their trust in God. Songs break out from the hearts and lips of those who have only known sorrow and tears. Jerusalem is redeemed to become a place of comfort for God’s people. Interestingly, God reveals God’s hand and allows all the nations without exception to see God’s blessings that God has bestowed on everyone.
As it were, on the mountains, one experiences total transformation. This transformation is to become the grounds for an ethical consciousness for all peoples. What is most striking about the deed of God is that all shall see directly what God is doing in the world. For Isaiah, it is the restoration of Zion. But Zion has become not just a specific place that one must go to. Rather, it is the place where each of us calls their home. At home, it ought to be a place where we experience ourselves in abundance and the beauty that resides in the world around us, including in the hearts of those who are our neighbors.
The skeptic in me wants to ask the following question: How can we see God who is a spirit? To answer this question, one has to turn to the content of the Nativity. The gift of the Nativity is that God has become one with humanity. Consequently, all whom we encounter ought to see in us the transforming power of God’s solidarity with creation. Hence, the Johannine Gospel (1:1-18) reminds us of the transformative power of witnessing to the truth. John the Baptist was a witness to the salvific light of Christ, and through his testimony, many came to experience an abundant life.
Interestingly, the author of the Johannine Gospel plays with the motifs of darkness and light and how the light shines in the darkness. In other words, light is always proximally close to darkness. A world without the light of God is a world saturated with darkness. Such a world is always in need of the proximal closeness to the transforming light of God. That said, the Nativity points to God’s proximal closeness to each of us and offers us a vision of how to be fully human in the world. The baby Jesus, as the light of God in the world, stands as God’s invitation to us to embrace God as our neighbor. It does not end there. It is also an invitation for all of us to become neighbors of light to each other, especially those who may be living in the darkness of social evil that our world has brought upon them.
As we reflect on ways to embody the light of God to each other as neighbors, I am particularly conscious of many in our world who are suffering from addictions. As humans, we are prone to different forms of addictions that we embrace or are forced upon us as a result of the social realities playing out in our world. For some, it is an addiction to money. For some, it is an addiction to drugs. For some, it is an addiction to food. For some, it is an addiction to social media or even gossip. Whatever the addiction may comprise of, we ought to always remember that a turn to addictive behavior is an unhealthy attempt by humans to embrace a false light. This mirage that presents itself as light is but a type of darkness. To counter this false turn, we ought to remember that the Nativity event is itself an ethical summons for all of us to become the true light for each other in the world.
To embody the Christmas grace is to choose to be neighbors of light towards each other. This is because the gift of the Nativity is an anthropological grace that makes us whole. It heals our collective and individual brokenness. It offers us a new vision and purpose in our lives. Furthermore, it orients us towards a praxis of neighborliness towards each other. It defines us as bearers of life to the world. The grace of the Nativity is a reminder for us to become bearers of a new narrative that we must bring to all who live in the valley of death, so that they can rise up with us to the mountains of transformation. Here, we can see clearly the glory of God and the enduring grace of life that God has introduced into the world through Christ.
Finally, the grace of Christmas is an enduring grace of peace, not just in our hearts but also in our world. That said, I invite us to pause for a moment on this day of Christmas and pray earnestly for peace in our world. A world that is free from wars is a world that is saturated with hope. A world that is saturated with hope is a world where addictive behaviors can be overcome, and new life can be embraced by all. May the Infant Jesus, the symbol of God’s peace in the world, be a fountain of light that can guide us as we reject violence and embrace peace. Merry Christmas to you all.
