My dear friends, I begin with this citation from the Gospel of John precisely because it is this light that we celebrate in this holy season, the Light who is Christ, our Way, our Truth and our Life. So often in the hustle and bustle of this time of the year, the noise and activity of the shopping centers, holiday parties and pageants and all the many and varied activities which make this time so intoxicating, we can lose sight of what it is, or rather, Who it is that we honor in these celebrations.

 Recently, his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI gave us another beautiful encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope). In it the Holy Father explicates for us the meaning of our hope, the reason for our living in Christ, and I can think of no better document to help us reflect on the coming of Christ in the flesh than this beautifully pastoral encyclical. Pope Benedict spends considerable time highlighting what it means to be a Christian: it means to live with hope because we live in an encounter with a personal God – a God who has shown us his face in Christ (Spe Salvi, 4)

That showing of God’s face in the person of Christ is the very meaning of the Incarnation. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) not just to teach us the way, but to be our way. He came not to teach us how to hope, but to be our very hope in Himself. It is this kind of Christianity that is often misunderstood or overlooked, so that to many people our faith seems to be merely a list of “do’s and don’ts” when, in fact, it is so much more. The Holy Father points out, using St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, that before Christianity, we were a people “without hope and without God.” It is for this that Christ came in the flesh, a tiny helpless child in a harsh world, that would one day lead him to the Cross. He came so that we might live with God, and thereby, with hope.

That living with God does not begin after death. We often speak of someone who has died as being “with God now,” and though this may be true, it is not the beginning of our relationship with Him. Jesus defines Christianity thusly: “eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) We can know God precisely because Jesus revealed Him to us by being born as the Son of God made man; and this knowing is not a factual knowledge only, but a personal knowledge, the way we know a friend, a brother. It is in this knowing of God in Christ that we find the substance of Christian hope, the eternal life promised by his Passion, Death and Resurrection, which could only be possible because of his holy Incarnation. He is the Child born to die, so that he might free us all from the fear of death.

We possess eternal life now, as we walk in the light of Christ. The Holy Father reminded us of this in Spe Salvi when he recalls the simple ritual of baptism for children. In it, the priest or deacon asks the parents, “What do you ask of God’s Church?” and they respond, “Faith.” Then the priest asks, “What does faith offer?” “Eternal life” is the answer. That life begins in baptism, when we are first entered into that relationship with God. (Spe Salvi, 10)

We live in that relationship every day, and it is continually strengthened and renewed in the Sacraments, most especially Penance and the Holy Eucharist. When you come to greet the newborn King this Christmas, come knowing that you are loved by Him, and that he offers you and me the same hope that inspired the saints of all ages. “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”(John 10:10)

With heartfelt prayers for a holy and blessed Christmas, I am, 

Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D.
Bishop of Scranton