Category: Praise

Christmas Reflections 2025

At the heart of the meaning of Christmas is Incarnation:

“The Word became flesh and lived among us.” John 1:14

The Word became flesh. God is revealed in the flesh. The implication is that God is expressed in our humanity. While that is true, we, who are human, are not all there is to flesh. We have many animal kin who are flesh. I feel like God is revealed in my dog, and the squirrels, rabbits and birds outside my window, and the deer and coyote that I encounter in the woods, and in the trees and flowers. God is present in all of creation.

Certainly, what we celebrate at Christmas is the union of God and humanity—the Word or Expression of God joined to our humanity as we exist in the flesh. And yet, we are not separate from the rest of creation. As the theologian, Karl Rahner, puts it, “Our bodies do not end with our skin.” The reality of our fleshly existence and its survival is part of a whole, the flesh and matter of the cosmos.

Our evolution from a speck of life makes us part of a tree of life. We are life that has become conscious of itself and reflective. In their book, Journey of the Universe, Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, write that “every time we are drawn to look up into the night sky and reflect on the awesome beauty of the universe, we are actually the universe reflecting on itself.”

Even more so, we are the coming-to-be of the universe in its reflection of its Creator. And, in our infinite openness, we are the universe reaching out to its Creator. All of creation shares in our reaching out and glorifying God our Maker.

So, Jesus tells us to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air and how God cares for them. We share in the same care of the Creator. And all of creation joins us in glorifying God for God’s creation and care.

Francis of Assisi, in his Canticle of Creation, sings of God’s praise through all of creation, through Brother Sun, Sister Moon and Stars, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, Sister Earth, our Mother.

“Praise be yours, our Lord, through all that you have made.”

The Word became flesh and dwells among us. God is present in and through our humanity and through all of creation. Thanks be to God.

Filed under: Creation, Humanity, Incarnation, Nature, Praise, Unity

Christmas Reflections 2023

At Christmas, those of us who find our center in Christ celebrate our humanity. We celebrate our true humanity in union with God. Traditionally we have used the term “incarnation” to speak of this union: God revealed in the flesh; God among us and in us.

St. Paul writes of the glory of God in the face of Christ and of Christ as the image of God. With these words, he connects Christ to the story of creation in the book of Genesis, where we are told that humanity is created in the image of God.

Humanity, when it is being true to itself, is the expression of the God who is love. Our true humanity manifests love, compassion, mercy, justice. It reveals God’s love.

The attraction that brought crowds out to Jesus was the love of God that shone in his life as he reached out with compassion to heal and to liberate. Jesus said he did not come into the world to condemn the world but to seek and to save the lost. And that is what we see in him. He came in humility and openness to hurting human beings joining himself to the suffering of others, even to the point of death on a cross.

What we see in Christ is our true humanity as the expression of God who is love. We have needed to see this example of humanity, because we see, in ourselves and others, much that is false to our humanity. We see our inhumanity, the ways we put down others and operate with arrogance and selfishness, passing on the other side of the road when encountering one who has fallen, hurt and broken.

In Christ, we come to participate in our true humanity, for we experience our relationship with God. In Christ, we come to trust God. Christ’s faith becomes ours. Christ’s love and hope become ours. In Christ, the way into union with God is open.

In a world at war, divided, torn apart by our inhumanity toward one another, the words of the angel to the shepherds in the field speak to all who have ears to hear: “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Anointed One, the Lord.”

Therefore, many of us join the shepherds watching over sheep at that first Christmas; we join with them and the angels in rejoicing and giving glory to God.

Filed under: Humanity, Love, Praise, SpiritualityTagged with: ,