It is the Yes of Mary to the Yes of God
inviting the Yes of us to the Yes of God.
It is the surrogacy of love
giving birth to new possibilities.
It is the magnificat of Mary’s hospitality
undoing the homelessness of hope.
It is the face of the child in the crib or in the check-out line
returning us to our original face, our beatific visage.
It is the capacity of the flicker of light
to disarm the rapacity of the heart of darkness.
It is the mystery of gravity and grace,
the mixture of a beggar’s need and a child’s wonder.
It is a reminder that matter matters,
and the impetus for repentance for those who desecrate the earth.
It is the re-awakening to the sacredness and enchantment of creation
and a call to retrieve reverence for all life forms.
It is the subversion of grace and the audacity of hope
unclogging the intransigence of the human heart.
It is the indigence of God-become-human wed to the lavishness of love
annulling the marriage of insecurity and power.
It is the bleeding-knuckled knock at the door
saying I am here. You are not alone.
It is the tender solidarity of divine compassion
healing the heart of the lonely hunter who longs to belong
It is the enfleshment of divine pathos
lightening the load of despair and lifting the oppressive weight of grief.
It is the extravagance of divine generosity,
indicting hearts shrunk by self-absorption and minds given to greed.
It is the expansive reach of love in the wide embrace of grace
drawing all outsiders in and all turned-in insiders out.
It is the unifying work of justice
swaddling those who sow misery and serve their own selfish ends.
It is a call for the demilitarization of the minds of men* in power
who pretend war is the path to lasting peace.
It is a cry for the demilitarization of the minds of men* lost and disempowered
who think rage and revenge will chase away their despair.
It is the disarming path of the Prince of Peace
come to dress the unaddressed wounds that lead to senseless violence.
It is the silence in the night and the sigh of deep peace
when human persons, a.k.a. images of God, realize they were not made to kill.
It is the wonder and awe of shepherds
humbling and exposing the arrogance of rulers.
It is the slumber party of the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat,
the sleepover of the lion and the calf and the yearling.
It is the companionship of the cow and the bear,
and the child playing safely outside the viper’s den.
It is the vulnerable God laid naked in a crib, later nailed naked to a cross,
come to be with those broken and stripped of their dignity by the sin of others.
It is the quiet confidence in the accruing collateral of kindness
to redeem the bankruptcy of cruelty.
It is the humility and power of praise
freeing the joy that wipes away all sad tears.
It is the tenacity of trust that God is with us
enabling us to lean into the unseen truth that all shall be well.
It is the extravagance of love.
It is the incarnation of love.
It is the endurance of love.
It is the truth of love.
It is the way of love.
It is the life of love.
It is love.
Love.
Goodpeople — whether or not you believe in Christmas, perhaps each and all of us could wish for peace and justice, safety for the most vulnerable, healing for the brokenhearted, reverence for the community of creation – human and other-than-human – a decrease in fear, prejudice, and hate, and an increase in integrity, neighborliness, and compassion. Then maybe all of us could commit to doing one thing each day, maybe even more than one thing, so that we make our wish our work, and by our work help make the wish of someone else who wishes for these same things come true.⊕
* I am committed to inclusive language when speaking both of the Divine and humans. Although I think women are no more immune to sin, contradiction, and ignominy than are men, history shows that men have disproportionately been the primary agents of violence, violation, brutality, and war. So my use of the word men here is conscious and intentional.