Christmas message for 2023

Greetings and may the joy of the birth of the Christ Child be with you today and every day throughout the coming year. Each year as we gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we may often find ourselves filled with a mixture of emotions jumbled up with current personal events and past Christmas memories. And the older we get the more of these feelings and emotions crowd our mind and hearts. It makes it very easy to lose focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Of course, there are all too many who try to tell us what the true message of Christmas should be but most of us are aware of importance of the birth of the Messiah.

The plain fact remains however, is just as importantly it is a love story reflecting just how much our glorious Father in heaven and his beloved Son loves us and this love is perpetuated by the beloved Holy Spirit, he was sent to be with us today and every day. God’s love for us knows no bounds which for us is perhaps difficult to comprehend given our sinful state at times. Yes, he may chastise us and push our human endurance to the limits only to prove us like gold ore in the fire making us more worthy of his love and eternal blessing.

Rather than abandoning his human creations to eternal death or allow the evil one to have his way with us in his compassion and love for us told us though the prophets to hope in the coming of the Messiah. Since there is no time in God’s dominion when and how he devised the plan, we do not know its essence. It could have well been only moments after Eve and Adam violated the one law God gave them. And before we judge them to harshly let us be all remind of our own younger years that whenever our parents or other persons in authority over us told us that we were forbidden from doing something how much more was the temptation for us to taste of the forbidden fruit?

Thousands of years have passed, and we as human beings are still tempted to do what we are not supposed to do by breaking social or moral laws that are put in place to protect us and others from dangerous or costly behaviors. All this said the miracle of the birth of Jesus is something we now just take for granted not realizing the amazingly profound act of love it represents.

Jesus the Son of God most high willing accepted God the Father’s will and willingly came to earth in human form knowing even before his birth the price he would have to pay for the redemption of our souls. This most innocent divine nature would undergo mental and physical torture, and great agony paying the ultimate price of suffering death on the cross so that our sins would be forgiven. It is this virtuous gift to humanity that each of us in this Christmas season should express our deepest heart felt gratitude to God the Father and his beloved Son Jesus the Christ for the most precious gift of life eternal.

This is the season of rejoicing that our souls were set free and the dept of our sinfulness was paid for in full by the great loving sacrifice of Jesus our precious redeemer. So, this Christmas season as you look around at your loved ones be mindful of the wonderous gift they and you have received at baptism, everlasting life. Rejoice!

Pax et bonum,
+John