“And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jean Vanier expresses beautifully
and in simple terms the meaning of this Christmas proclamation:
Here we have the
heart, the center, the beginning and the end of the gospel: God, the eternal
God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, became like us, a vulnerable, mortal
human being. He became as a baby needing a mother, conceived in her flesh,
nourished at her breast, needing her love and the love and presence of Joseph
in order to grow and develop as a human being. Pitching his tent among us, he became a pilgrim and a brother,
walking through the desert with us. He became part of history, revealing to us
a way to God and to universal peace.
That humble birth in Bethlehem means that
God is no longer distant or set apart from our world—indeed, it means a huge
change for each one of us personally, for the Prologue of John's Gospel assures us that “from
the fullness of life and love in Him we have received love upon love, grace
upon grace.” In fact, we have received so much from him that his birth is, in a
real sense, our birth