Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

And Best of All

After the Advent waiting, Christmas finally arrived and we heard “the glad tidings of great joy to all the people” that Jesus had come. But that’s not the whole story. A significant part of the good news is that he came to stay. His name after all is God-with-us (Emmanuel) not God-with-us-for-awhile.

Maybe we simply take his presence for granted, so that, after two thousand years, the novelty has worn off and the fact that Jesus is still with us is just the way things are. Some say they wish that they could have lived in the days when Jesus was on earth. But he still is, and that is part of the “great joy to all the people.”

The very idea of the Creator’s entering his creation and sharing the life of his creatures, the notion that this was not something that God would do just for a time, the realization that Jesus is the permanent sign of God’s commitment to share our life — we can’t let these things get stale in our awareness. If we lose our amazement that Jesus is with us, we risk not appreciating what an overwhelming act of love the Incarnation of Christ truly is and how it changes our very notion of God and how God relates to us.

So, as we pack away the decorations over the next few days, let’s try to renew and refresh our awareness of how amazing it is that the Jesus who came, did in fact come to stay. He’s never left us and never will.