I just wanted to share some Christmas thoughts with everyone.

I love being Catholic. I love that I have been given the gift of being part of an ancient faith that has blessed me with knowing that not only is there a God, but that He loves us. Christmas (and Easter) is, I think, the time of our lives when this is made abundantly clear (Easter being even more clear!).

Ours is not a distant, cold God that sits on His mountaintop meditating all the time. He is involved in our lives in every moment, laboring for our benefit. He is involved directly with humanity, and from time to time He injects himself into the very history of the world. What God has ever done this? What God has ever given Himself to us?

Two-thousand years ago (or so) something truly amazing happened. A poor girl in the middle of nowhere was visited by an angel and conceived in her womb not just a baby, but the Son of God, and remained a virgin. Who could bend the laws of nature but the God who wrote them?

Let the gravity of this conception sink in a little. The Son of God, the King of Everything, was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. A nine month old baby didn’t just appear in her belly or in her arms, but an egg from within her was made whole and became a zygote, cells began multiplying and all the normal biological things that happen with each normal human conception occurred- everything that happened to each one of us. Think about that- God once existed on a microscopic level!

This also means some other amazing things. That zygote, that single cell of human life, was the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That single cell had a name, a purpose, a Spirit, and two parents that loved it. From the moment of conception, that single cell within Mary’s womb had a life, just as much as you and I have a life- an identity, a soul, a purpose, loved ones. Even before our parents named us, God had a name and a plan for every one of us. For me, this truth makes the state of affairs in this world even more of a sorrow to bear. Think of what might have happened had Jesus been conceived in the world to day, of the enormous pressure Mary might have been under to seek out emergency contraception or, eventually, an abortion. A girl that young, that poor, unwed, in a culture and society that was very much against such girls becoming pregnant out of wedlock? And who today would believe Mary’s story of Gabriel and conceiving the Messiah in her womb? Who would believe her to still be a virgin? To think that our culture today might have killed the Son of God before He was even born.

Thankfully, this was not the case, and Christ was born. Think about that, too. Were we present in that stable, we could have held the Son of God in our arms. Imagine! Holding a beautiful baby boy who is the Savior of all the world, God as a baby! A baby! Think of how weak and delicate a newborn baby is- the God of all the Universe became one! God was breast-fed, wore diapers, burped up on Mary’s (and Joseph’s) shoulders, took baths, cried all night, crawled around on the floor, put all sorts of things in His mouth, even went through the dreaded Terrible Twos! Imagine the Son of God teething, poor thing!

All of this for us. All of this because God loves you.

And we know what happens after all this sweetness. He grows into a man and we crucify Him. Not only was God born for us, but He died for us as well, “so we might have life, and have it more abundantly.”

These are the things I think about at Christmas these days. Any gift we receive under the tree is MEANINGLESS if we are forgetful of the FIRST gift, the greatest gift- Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. All the gifts we unwrap this Christmas are supposed to remind us of God’s gift to us, a beautiful little baby boy named Jesus, wrapped in the beautiful arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the tree of night, lit by the Star of Bethlehem and decorated with all of the singing choirs of angels. What better Christmas could we have than the first Christmas all those hundreds of years ago, that same Christmas we experience again and again when we attend Mass? First, Mass begins with the Word of God (“In the beginning, there was the Word- John 1), then it moves on to the Eucharist (… and the Word became Flesh.) Christmas happens, in a manner, at every Mass we go to- we are given Christ to hold in our very hand, just as delicate and fragile in the form of bread as a newborn baby, that He might rest peacefully in the manger of our heart for all our lives.

God bless all of you this Christmas, and prepare yourselves to receive the precious gift of Christ this year! Make the pathway to your heart straight and level for The Way, clear your mind of the lies of world and open up to The Truth, push aside the things of this life to make room for The Life, for we all desire to be with our Father in Heaven, and no one can come to the Father except through this tiny, fragile little baby born to us.

What further proof of God’s love do you need?