25 December 2025 - through his Son

 

Today's Readings - Mass During the Day
(Audio) 

In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways 
to our ancestors through the prophets; 

In times past we would have wondered if we could really hear from God. Sure, there were philosophers who could tell us true things about God. But they were mostly able to explain what they did not know, rather than anything positive. This was still helpful in purging the idolatry of assuming that God was one creature among many, or limited in the way that any created thing is inherently limited. But it was not relationship or true communication, and did not claim to be. There were prophets who professed to speak God's words. But even the greatest of these prophets were themselves merely human. The things they spoke were true, but inherently partial. It wasn't quite as compromised as a game of telephone. But neither was it direct communication. The prophets, after all, had a limited capacity to embody their words in their lives. They were often holy. But even the greatest of the prophets, Moses and Elijah, had moments marked by all too human failings. The ability to communicate in words that did not always correspond to one's life was limited. We know this feeling well when we try to tell others about the Gospel in spite of our flaws and shortcomings.

in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son

Philosophers might have wondered if true communication with God was something that was even possible, or whether God was the kind of thing with whom we should want to communicate. After all, an all-powerful and beneficent source of everything really should have no need of any input from us. And his transcendence might well mean that we have no hope of truly understanding him, but only the messages that he specifically adapts to us. We are far more distant from his capacity than are young children from highly educated adults. We might have wondered this if God had not in fact revealed himself through his Son. 

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh, and the Son was born into our world, in an act that definitively proved that God not only could communicate with mankind, but that he desired nothing so much as to be in communion with us. He did not want us to remain as slaves who did not understand him. Rather, he desired friendship, and made known everything he himself heard from the Father to us (see John 15:15). The incarnation proved that the sort of thing that God was was sufficiently compatible with humanity to take a human nature to himself. Through that nature he spoke to us, he taught us, and ultimately he redeemed us. Was the message he brought adapted to our limited capacity? Obviously. And yet, because Jesus was truly God, we need not fear that it was fundamentally compromised in the process. God was able to make himself, at last, clearly understood. And in turn we gained the freedom to not only express ourselves, but to recognize ourselves as known by him. Prayer need no longer feel like tossing darts at a dark sky. Jesus definitively revealed the merciful heart of God, which is always moved with compassion for the wounded hearts of humanity. 

The fact of the possibility of communion between God and man is at the heart of the Gospel. We may not always realize it. But when we lack it we lack everything. It is the deep desire underlying all of our superficial wants. Only in this communion can our hearts find true rest. And it is for that reason that the revelation of its possibility is such joyful news. The desires of our hearts can truly be realized. What was lost by Adam and Even in the Garden can finally be restored, and in fact has been restored, for those who open themselves to it.

Hark!  Your sentinels raise a cry,
together they shout for joy,
for they see directly, before their eyes,
the LORD restoring Zion.

Let us be among those shouting these glad tidings from the mountains. In an age when many have lost hope it is here that hope is found. Here, it can be reawakened even in the most jaded among us. 

Maverick City Music - Go Tell It On The Mountains