Verbum caro factum est, alleluia. The Word was made flesh, alleluia.
Traditionally, Catholics knelt in honour of the Incarnation, both when reciting the Creed and when listening to St. John’s Gospel. In the Old Rite, the beginning of St. John’s Gospel is read at the end of Mass, which serves as a constant reminder of the miracle of Christ’s birth, and of the love of the God who came to save us.
It is, of course, the great truth of Christmas. In this country today, it is not fashionable to talk about Christian faith. It is seen as potentially unwelcoming to those of other faiths who have come into Britain recently and, by the increasingly secular establishment, as slightly bad form.
This needs to be challenged, and we all have our part to play. Christianity underpins our culture, laws, and society. This is a Christian nation, with an anointed king and an established church.
The Christian nature of our culture has survived the inhuman rationalists. This is true in art, where religious symbols permeate our consciousness, and in architecture, where almost every village still has, as its main building, a church built by relatively poor communities hundreds of years ago, who devoted all their meagre, spare resources to the glory of God. That we allow the reproduction of human images is because of Western Christianity’s view on icons, in spite of Puritan attacks in the 16th and 17th century. This makes Christian art different from that of some other religions, especially Islam, which prohibits human images.
The laws of the land are dependent on Christianity. Alfred the Great’s law code specifically included the Ten Commandments, and they were one of the first systematized set of laws ever produced in this country. He also used the work of Aethelbert of Kent, who was famously converted by St. Augustine, Ine of Wessex and Offa of Mercia’s law, and all of these were either by birth or conversion Christian Kings. The nation’s approach to punishment with fair treatment for prisoners is also based on the Christian model of salvation and redemption, allowing for forgiveness and reform.
In our society, we are Christian too. The care we have for others comes from the Gospels, the limits we place on our own selfishness derives from Christ. Although we do not achieve perfection, our aims for society are those that come to us from the sacred texts.
Yet, the importance of Christianity is not that it is influential, but that it is true. Miraculously hard to believe, but true in a way that no other religion can be. Christ came into this world as a vulnerable baby. He was born of a virgin who took a great risk in saying yes to the Archangel Gabriel. It was not merely the risk of ostracism, but of death. Had St. Joseph wanted to, he could have had her stoned. Before he was visited by an angel he planned to put her away quietly, but he could have been harsher, and the Blessed Virgin did not know how he would react, when she replied to the archangel “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word”.
Then Herod tried to kill Christ. The three wise men famously returned by another route, but the holy innocents were massacred, and the Holy Family had to flee into Egypt. Christ’s vulnerability was not theoretical, it was real. He was fully human as well as God.
He took these risks to save mankind, which had fallen into sin and could not be saved in any other way. But redemption for the world required death for Christ. Our Lord and Saviour was abandoned by everyone in the Garden of Gethsemane. His followers could not even keep awake as he prayed after the Last Supper.
He was alone, save for his mother, who saw him on the Via Doloresa, and two strangers, St. Simeon and St. Veronica. Even St. Peter denied him. St. John belatedly was there at the foot of the cross, and was told to look after the Blessed Virgin, whom he then took into his home.
This terribly painful punishment was necessary for our salvation and that of our forefathers who had died in sin, but whom Christ was going to rescue through his death. Death was not strong enough to hold him, evil could not prevail, so he rose again. This is the other essential of faith, without the incarnation, there is no resurrection. Without the resurrection, there is nothing.
Everything Christ did was good, he did not fight a just war, he accepted his duty to his Father, and he died a criminal’s death. He was and is the truth. Once he rose from the dead, his disciples saw him and believed. They did not just do so inertly but actively, they proselytised and died as martyrs.
Christian martyrs do not seek either their death or the deaths of others. There is no special place in heaven for those who kill and maim the innocent. Instead, they face death without fear, recognising that it leads to eternal life.
St. Thomas More was such an admirable martyr because he was both steadfast in his belief, but made no attempt to seek a glorious death. Yet his faith was secured by the apostles, who had seen the risen Christ and all of whom, bar St. John, died for what they knew to be true.
No one in these circumstances would die for a fake or even an exaggeration. This is why Christianity is so powerful, it is because it is true and this truth is exclusive. It depends on Christ becoming man, fulfilling the prophets’ words, and completing the law.
It was the greatest gift God could give, his final and glorious effort to save sinful men from the result of their iniquity. This makes Christmas such a joyful celebration, a huge sigh of relief that we will not receive the just sentence that we deserve for our sins, but will be saved if we accept Christ, and encourage others to do the same.
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