By Fr John Quang SVD

During the first three centuries of persecution, Christians didn’t celebrate the Christmas feast in the same way we celebrate it today, reflects Fr John Quang SVD.

They celebrated the feast of Emmanuel, God-is-with-us. That’s the essence, the crux of Christmas. It is not so much about a birthday, but rather about God the Creator becoming human like us in flesh and dwelling among us so that we may be saved. The word Jesus means ‘God saves’. As a result of God being among us and becoming one like us, we are saved.

The very idea of an almighty powerful God mingling himself with us in flesh is offensive or laughable to non-Christian people. Even Christians may take the Emmanuel for granted, because it is beyond our imaginable human mind. It is mind-blowing! Yet is real. God always surprises us, doesn’t he?

St Augustine said something like, in the mystery of incarnation, God becoming human, the fallen humanity is now restored, raised and refined in the humanity of Jesus. We don’t know how to be human as God wills us to, so God became human so that we can be refined and raised in the person of Jesus.

Since God takes on human flesh, this graces humanity with a new inviolable dignity. Humanity that belongs to the created order is now elevated into the divine order of Christ who bears two natures - human and divine - in himself.

“Lord, what are human beings that you regard them, or mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow. Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down...” (Ps 144)

Christmas is not a myth or fiction. Christmas is a religious/spiritual mystery of God-made-human, a saving mystery that only makes sense if we live it from within.

Until we learn to live our humanity as the humanity that God in Christ Jesus became, the world will be a much better and redeemed one – because in that humanity, God is with us.