The ancient and holy words from the pen of St. Luke this Christmas Season remind us of the most significant event in human history, proclaimed by an angel.
The angel was joined by many heavenly hosts proclaiming, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” At the dawn of human creation, the glory of God was unabated until that fateful moment when heaven and our first parents were separated.
The angel’s pronouncement, so momentous and even beyond human comprehension, ushered in a love so strong and pure it would reunite heaven and earth in the person of the infant Jesus Christ. God would bridge the division between good and evil as he wedded human flesh with the immortality of God himself.
God’s love would not permit his beloved creatures, whom he created in his image and likeness, to be forever haunted by the prospect of eternal extinction. God planned to recreate humanity not only by willing it but also by sending his only begotten Son to live and experience human life from the beginning to the end, from birth to earthly death.
Unlike the glorious announcement of the angels, his birth did not come with immense power and fanfare, even though the chant of the heavenly host might suggest differently. Humanity is too fragile of a state, too weak to take in the fullness of God becoming man all at once.
No one had ever seen a love so great before, and the shepherds in the field first reacted in fear. It was only after the angel reassured them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is the Messiah and Lord.” For it is not destruction that God sends his Son into the world but “good news” personified in the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
The shepherds, ordinary and unremarkable individuals of their time, were visited by the angel to signify how Jesus would live out his mission. He did not enter time and space with a trumpet blast, nor in the womb of a queen, but in the simplest and unassuming way possible. Humanity separated from God is bereft of any title or wealth, and it is to these he was born to share our humanity.
Pivotal for each of us is how the shepherds acted after the angel returned to heaven. Luke describes it this way: “The shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.”
Even before Jesus began his mission as an adult, through grace, the shepherds became the first preachers of his Gospel. Commonplace individuals of their time came to believe and share that joy. Shouldn’t that be our experience, especially with all of the advantages we have been given to know Jesus more fully? And yet, we are still reluctant to share his joyfully with those around us.
May this season of Christmas, when we treasure the birth of our Savior, reignite in us the gratitude for the gift of humanity being recreated, motivate us to be more faithful and to share the Good News with others, as did the shepherds over two thousand years ago.
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