IncarnationBy The Revd David Burgess
I’ll begin this month with a story I’ve told before, concerning Pope John XXIII. His personal warmth, good humour and kindness captured the world’s affections; whenever his photograph was taken, John would look directly at the camera and smile.
On Christmas Day 1958, he became the first pope to leave Vatican territory since 1870, when he visited children suffering from polio at the Bambin Gesù Hospital and then visited Santo Spirito Hospital. The next day he visited the Regina Coeli prison, one of the worst in Rome, where he greeted the prisoners with these words: “You could not come to me, so I have come to you”. These acts, particularly the Boxing Day visit, created a sensation, and he wrote in his diary:
“…great astonishment in the Roman, Italian and international press. I was hemmed in on all sides: authorities, photographers, prisoners, wardens…”The Christmas story, at its heart, is just that – of Jesus coming to us when we could not come to him and dwelling among us. The word ‘incarnation’ – putting on flesh – is an exact description of how it happened. Christians believe in a God who wants to come alongside us, who has identified with us and who has experienced humanity to the full. This is how he brought it about.
“You could not come to me, so I have come to you…” We’re used to the story of Christmas being a multi-faceted tale. Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels provide us with the story from several different standpoints – Mary’s and Joseph’s, Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s, the shepherds’ and the wise men’s and that of the two authors themselves. The narratives would form a long tale if put together.
But John’s Gospel condenses Christmas into a single verse, almost bringing to us the events from Jesus’s own point of view:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.
What John XXIII did clearly encouraged and delighted many and challenged others. He himself, though, would have been the first to acknowledge the limits of his powers. He could visit the inmates in their prison, but he could not free them from it.
We can be thankful, therefore, that Jesus, Son and Saviour does both. Because of this… “We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.
I wish you a peaceful and joyful Christmas.