Dear Friends,
 
The wonderful preacher and teacher Fr. James Schall, S.J. presents us with another beautiful reflection on this season of Christmas:
 
What is "growing" at Christmas? In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI often repeated his central theme. The world is not particularly different if Jesus of Nazareth was simply another Jew born at a certain time. But the world is radically different if He is who He said He was, namely, that He was sent by the Father into this world to redeem us. For the past four hundred years, if not longer, we have reduced who "He said He was" from the Son of Man, the Second Person of the Trinity, to just another prophet, to a political fanatic, to a deluded maniac, to someone who never existed. The pope spelled this sequence out in his lecture at Regensburg.

In conclusion, however, the  Nativity of Christ means nothing less than that the Second     Person of the Trinity became man and with His birth dwelt amongst us. We have not and cannot change this fact. This Nativity still dwells amongst us. That is, the way of salvation that God planned for us to understand and choose is still offered to us. No one will be saved who does not choose to be saved. No one will be saved other than through Christ's redemptive actions.

No one exists who was not created for eternal life, which cannot be received by anyone unless he wants it. No relation to God is forced on us because there is no real happiness for man apart from the choices he makes about what he is. We like each thing that in season grows to be what it is. For us, "to grow" is also "to choose." And "to choose" is not just to choose what we can concoct for ourselves. Rather it is to choose what is really the best and noblest for us. 

This is ultimately what the Nativity is about. Because of it, we can choose to be what we were intended to be, something greater than what we could ever imagine for ourselves.   But it is a gift. If we do not know what gifts really are, we will never understand or receive them. 
 
In Christ, 
 
Fr Marotti