One of the greatest ironies in life is the relationship of birth with death. How many times do we hear that a loved-one has died and yet within a few days and in the very same family a birth has occurred. Sadness goes hand in hand with joy, darkness with light, death with life.

For me the Christmas story has always had two essential aspects: the crib and the Cross. Needless to say (but I will anyway) I have no time for the well rehearsed commercial and sentimental features of Christmas because they have nothing to do with the true story that the season of Advent anticipates. Think about it, Christmas is a story about a pregnant mother with her husband struggling to find shelter before the birth of a baby that becomes surrounded by farm animals.

So what is it to be? Tinsel versus manure. A lavish Christmas luncheon versus utter poverty and destitution. A maternity unit versus a tiny stable with a leaky roof. What will it be?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t bemoan folk enjoying themselves at Christmas -  I would be a hypocrite because I certainly hope to have fun and joy on the 25th December. The giving and receiving of presents, family meals, Father Christmas, and that wonderful sense of anticipation are very much part of our cultural heritage that makes us essentially a Christian country.

The Christmas story is about a crib that looks onto the Cross. The central message of Christmas is that God became MAN – what an amazing and incredible truth that is!

Most readers will be familiar with the character of Ebenezer Scrooge – one of Charles Dickens’ wonderful men! Poor old Scrooge! For me Mr. Scrooge touches on what Christmas is really all about – if we would but home in and do what we know we ought to! You see, Scrooge is converted, changed and transformed. He examines his Christmas past, his Christmas present and his Christmas future. This is exactly what we are all called to do at Christmas – examine our past, present and future.

This is what Christmas ought to force us to do in the bright and loving light of God becoming MAN! Our celebration of Christmas calls us to declare that God became man and that life will never, can never, be the same again.

I am sure that our increasing secular society would wish to extinguish the very heart and meaning of Christmas but the wonder of the Incarnation (the birth of God-made-man – Jesus) will not and cannot disappear because it is so extraordinary, beautiful and holy. It’s all about love! The truth that God became man is one which challenges our small and limited perceptions and that is why only with the eyes of faith we can truly celebrate it.

So, I am returning to the traditional usage of saying Christmass and not Christmas – I am fervently going to put Christ back into Christmas! Yes! Indeed, Christmas is the Mass of Christ and anybody with a living faith in the God of love will be in church at Christmas to celebrate the Mass of Christ. 

Fr. Maximilian Kolbe was a prisoner at Auschwitz death camp and he managed to smuggle tiny pieces of bread and small crops of wine so that he could celebrate the Mass of Christ at Christmas. This was a striking way of declaring that God’s love could be real in a hopeless situation – the birth of Christ - Christmass brought the joy of hope even in the midst of dark death.

The birth of Jesus Christ is God’s total intervention in human history – the very being of God is revealed to the world for our sake and we are called to respond with faith, love and hope. The crib of Christmas points to Cross of Good Friday because evil is conquered and life is restored for all eternity!

May Love come down to us this Christmass, that our hearts and minds may be transformed with a hope that knows no bounds for God is with us! 

Fr. Timothy Whitwell SSC MA B.Th (Hons.)(Oxon)
Chaplain & Head of Religious Studies