The historical reality of Christmas

As Christmas becomes, more and more, a purely sentimental, secular and commercial affair, the more Christmas time becomes a tricky time that can give way to scepticism.

If we do not pay serious attention, the whole Christmas story with its crib, ox, ass, shepherds and singing angels on one hand, and Christmas parties, presents and glittering trees on the other, can easily render the Christmas story as something which does not belong to the real world, something more or less similar to the myth of Father Christmas.

Indeed, Christmas time should be for one and all the time to ponder and reflect on the historical reality of what really happened in Christmas so many centuries ago. Before being just a spiritual event, Christmas is first and foremost a real historical happening. Christmas thus is a time when history and Christianity meet in a most particular way.

If we want the Christmas story to be real, we have to be bold enough to admit that what separates and raises all those who really believe in Christmas above the old pagans and the modern New Agers is that for us Christians, God-in-History has replaced God (or Gods)-in-Nature.

History is indeed part of the essence of mankind. That is why therefore that making Himself part of our history by becoming man, God makes the curtain that divides man and Himself very thin.

The only logical explanation of the crib is thus the capacity to make us believe that the divine can break in upon history. This is after all what is really meant by Revelation. Limited as we are, it is nonetheless our gift to be able to perceive such an exalted and mysterious historical reality.

No one can deny that, from time immemorial, man has always recognised himself as a religious being, thus being capable of putting himself in contact with God. This is so because reasons certainly do exist to believe in God.

But as many have maintained and still maintain, there are also reasons to doubt or even deny God's existence. That is why man has always and still understandably asks: Why doesn't God reveal Himself more clearly? Why doesn't He give us a more tangible and accessible proof of His existence? Why does His mysterious strategy seem to be part of playing hide-and-seek with his creatures? Wouldn't it be simpler if His existence were evident?

Curiously enough, these same questions were put to Pope John Paul II some years ago by the Italian journalist Vittorio Messori. The Pope himself then quite admirably answered them in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

The Pope made it clear that God's self-revelation comes about in a special way by his becoming man. The challenge thus comes from God himself, since He really became a man in His Son and was born of the Virgin. It is precisely in this birth, and then through the Passion, the Cross, and the Resurrection that the self-revelation of God in the history of man reached its zenith - the revelation of the invisible God in the visible humanity of Christ.

Appealing for impartiality in our reasoning, the Pope asks: "Could God go further in His stooping down, in His drawing near to man, thereby expanding the possibilities of our knowing Him?"

His answer is a straight one: "In truth, it seems that he has gone as far as possible. He could not go further. In a certain sense God has gone too far! Didn't Christ perhaps become a "stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (I Cor. 1:23)? Precisely because He called God His Father, because He revealed Him so openly in Himself, He could not but elicit the impression that it was too much... Man was no longer able to tolerate such closeness, and thus the protests began."

"This great protest," according to the Pope, "has precise names - first it is called the Synagogue, and then Islam. Neither can accept a God who is so human. 'It is not suitable to speak of God in this way,' they protest. 'He must remain absolutely transcendent; He must remain pure Majesty. Majesty full of mercy, certainly, but not to the point of paying for the faults of His own creatures, for their sins.'

"From one point of view it is right to say that God revealed too much of Himself to man," concludes the Pope, "too much of that which is most divine, that which is His intimate life; He revealed Himself in His Mystery."

The Pope could not be more clear and straightforward in his answers. As all who believe in Christ should be. Once being the bridge between heaven and earth, the light of truth who has appeared to us in the flesh, both he and his teachings should be considered totally different to all founders of other religions and their teachings.

Once being convinced of this, one cannot but say with Dostoevsky: "Nothing more beautiful, profound, pleasant, reasonable or perfect exists in life than Jesus, the Saviour. I repeat with jealous love, no one like him exists or could exist. I will go even further and say that if someone were to show me that Christ is beyond historic truth and that truth is beyond Christ, I would still choose to remain with him and relinquish to live in the truth."

Of course, the gift of knowing Jesus does not mean that there are no important fragments of truth in other religions. But while maintaining an open dialogue with all other world religions, it would be bad that by doing a polite genuflection to the world religions, sacrifice truth because Christ is a rupture in the dialogue with other religions.

Of course in this relativistic age, it is not fashionable to speak about truth. That is why, according to some, those who believe that they possess the truth are considered arrogant and unable to dialogue, and cannot be taken seriously because truth is not possessed by anyone and we can only be in search of truth.

Some weeks ago, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, addressing a congress of world-renowned theologians in Spain on "Christ: Way, Truth and Life", posed the question: "Is it not pretentious for Christians to proclaim Christ as the only Saviour of humanity?"

While reiterating that modern relativism is the new face of intolerance, asked: "Isn't it arrogant to say that God cannot give us the gift of truth? Is it not contempt for God to say that we have been born blind and that truth is not our concern?"

Affirming that Christ indeed is the Way, the Truth and Life, the Cardinal concluded: "If I have been given the truth, I must consider it as a responsibility, which also presupposes service to others...

"Faith affirms that the unlikeness between what is known by us and reality itself is infinitely greater than the likeness... Therefore the only thing that we can do is to recognise with humility that we are unworthy messengers who do not proclaim ourselves, but who speak with holy fear of what is not ours, but of what comes from God."

Wise words indeed for any Christian who believes what really happened in Bethlehem more than two millennia ago.