We have arrived at the Fourth Sunday of Advent, which means we are now very close to Christmas, when we celebrate the Birth of Our Lord and Saviour JESUS Christ into this world. What we are about to celebrate is a mystery, and it’s impossible to fully understand. God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, becomes true man and enters our world, but without ceasing to be God. He was not born in the usual way – there was no man involved. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. This mystery is the heart of our Faith, and we call it the Incarnation – God taking our humanity to Himself.

So think about what this means. The infinite enters the finite. The Creator of the universe – He who made the angels, the  stars, the oceans, every living thing, plants, animals and human beings out of nothing, and even time itself, enters time and allows Himself to be enclosed for nine months in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The All-Powerful God, Who wants for absolutely nothing, chooses to depend on a human mother for life, warmth and care. The Eternal God Who holds all creation together in Himself, is held in Mary’s arms. He becomes a small and helpless infant, so as thirty-three years later, He could die on the Cross and save us. Such is His unmeasurable love for us.

Because this mystery is so great, at the Christmas Mass, during the Creed at the words, “And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man” we kneel. We kneel at these words because standing is not enough! Kneeling is our way of honouring the profound mystery of the Incarnation. We cannot fully comprehend it, but we show reverence for the moment when God humbled Himself to become as one of His creatures.

St Joseph, who features in today’s Gospel (Matthew 1:18-24), stands quietly at the centre of all this. God trusted him to protect Mary and the Child JESUS. Again, Joseph didn’t and couldn’t fully understand the mystery, but he trusted God and obeyed. He guarded Mary and protected her dignity and cared for the Child JESUS as his own. He reminds us that faith often means trusting God even when we can’t see the full picture.

Finally, Fr David and myself wish you all a very merry Christmas. May your homes be filled with peace and your hearts with faith. And may the Christmas liturgies be for you all, a true encounter with this holy mystery.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC