The great encounter
The month of December is our happy month to welcome again the Child Jesus born on Christmas Day.
The December 1 reading of Living Water 2015 started with the month of December considered by many as a time for blessings–gifts, parties, bonuses, and reunions.
It also carried this reminder from Pope Paul VI: "We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice."
We often view Christmas as God's gift to us, with Jesus as His best gift to us. Their love for us is Their best gift to us all, now and forever.
Not all of us, however, view the coming of Christ as the great encounter between us and God. Often, we see Christmas merely as a time for receiving Christ as God's gift to us. Not all of us realize that Christ's birth offers us as well the valuable, more lasting gift of redemption, of eternal reunion with God our Father.
Christmas is the time we are all reminded that Christ came to link us back to God. Christ is our Savior, our Emmanuel, "God is with us."
Every Christmas serves as happy reminder of our joyful encounter with God, through Christ. Knowing that Christ came to link us back to our Father allows us much more reason to rejoice, to celebrate!
It is also a reminder that Christmas as encounter is two-way: That God waits for us to accept and to return the love He shared through Jesus.
God so loved us, He gave us Christ and our free will–for us humans to decide to love Him because we choose to. God gave us His Son and love and He continues to wait for us to choose to love Him back in full faith and freedom.
The words of Pope Paul VI bring a wider, more profound meaning and significance to Christmas!
Let us all rejoice as we once again sing this year, "O come, o come, Emmanuel."
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