And is it true?
It is one of the curious features of the modern Christmas that as its secularisation and its commercial exploitation seem to gather momentum each passing year, so too does a rather interesting phenomenon. Throughout the land, thousands of people, from every conceivable background and belonging to every conceivable type, come to church to take part in (or perhaps only to watch) the Midnight Mass of Christmas. And though many of them will tell themselves that they do so because it is “a lovely idea”, it is clear that they are seeking something more: not a picturesque fantasy, but a reality far more profound than the rationalist expectations now foisted upon them. For though the story of God’s birth as a baby in Bethlehem long ago may be easily sentimentalised, the meaning it conveys may not; and it is a meaning which confronts the violence and pride of humankind and its pretensions to contain reality within the boundaries of his own understanding, and to dismiss even the notion of revealed religion.
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all…
The Maker of the stars and sea
Became a child on earth for me?
It is a truly amazing thing that we are celebrating now — the Incarnation — the doctrine that God himself came down in great humility as a tiny child, took human flesh so that we might be saved. That was once considered by all Christians as one of those irreducible teachings of the Church — along with so many others which have been questioned or watered down and even denied in more recent times. However, it is still the faith of the Church. The words of St John which we heard at the Mass of Christmas Day, and which are read at nearly every celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, ring as true to us now as they did when they were first written by the Beloved Disciple: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.’
I recall a Christmas hymn, not often sung these day, which contains the verse:
O wonder of wonders, which none can unfold:
The Ancient of Days is an hour or two old;
The Maker of all things is made of the earth,
Man is worshipped by angels, and God comes to birth.
The Incarnation of our Lord, which we are celebrating in these days with especial fervour and gratitude, will remain mysterious. It must. But there is no trick here to be exposed. Neither is the Christmas story a pretty seasonal confection but a truth passed down to us and taught in great earnest, since our salvation depends on it. The baby in the manger has power to draw us close to Himself. It is an almost irresistible attraction — Grace and Truth. When we go to Communion, we do so, knowing that as we receive Him, we have “come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
And is it true? (asks Sir John Betjeman) For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings…
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single truth compare —
That God was Man in Palestine,
And lives today in Bread and Wine.