PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

We have entered the Holy season in preparation for Christmas with the First Sunday of Advent on 30th November. Advent is a wonderful time of anticipation that invites us to take a moment to pause and get ready for Christmas. It is not just about counting down the days to the most joyful event in the liturgical year, but embarking on a meaningful journey to reflect on Christ’s coming. The word “Advent” means “arrival,” or “coming” and this season is all about the excitement at Christ’s birth in Bethlehem and his eventual return. This dual focus encourages believers to cherish the Nativity while also looking forward to the promises of God’s return.

During Advent, we can relish moments of prayer, meditation and reading the Scriptures, which bring us closer to God and help us think about the importance of Christ’s arrival. The Advent wreath and candles are symbols filled with meaning that help us appreciate the season even more. The wreath is usually circular, which is a lovely way to show God’s endless love and the eternal life we have through Christ. The greenery stands for hope and renewal, reminding us of fresh starts. Each candle on the Advent wreath has its own special meaning, symbolizing hope, peace, joy and love. Lighting these candles each week is a beautiful way to remind ourselves of Christ’s light coming into the world.

“Why Did God Become Human?”

One of the fundamental questions we ask while preparing for Christmas is: “Why did God become human?” (Cur Deus Homo?). In John 3:16 – often called “the gospel in a nutshell” – we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” From this text, several truths emerge: first, the Incarnation is the work of the Trinity; second, it springs from God’s immeasurable love; and third, human beings remain free to respond positively to God’s invitation to salvation.

The Incarnation of Jesus as the Work of the Trinity

Although the Second Person of the Trinity alone assumed human flesh, classical Christian theology has always understood the Incarnation as an act in which all three divine Persons participate, each according to His distinctive mission, yet perfectly united in will and purpose. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (258) affirms: “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons.”

The Father, as sender, reveals divine initiative and love. St. John emphasizes this when he writes, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” The Father’s desire to redeem humanity gives rise to the mission of salvation, a decision emerging from the eternal counsel of the triune God.

The Son’s role is unique inasmuch as He alone assumes human nature, becoming truly human while remaining truly divine. This is the hypostatic union: two complete natures united in one Person. The Son’s willingness reflects both his eternal submission to the Father within the Trinity and his active participation in the redemptive plan. As Philippians 2 teaches, though equal with God, He “emptied Himself” and took human form in obedience to the Father.

The Holy Spirit accomplishes the Incarnation. The Spirit overshadows Mary, brings about the union of divine and human natures, and guides Jesus throughout His earthly life: at His baptism, in His ministry, in His passion and in His resurrection. The Incarnation inaugurates a new era of the Spirit’s sanctifying presence in the world.

St Augustine writes in On the Trinity, “The Son of God was sent by that very act of assuming flesh, and the Holy Spirit was sent by that very act of being given… Yet each Person, while keeping His own property, works inseparably with the others.” Understanding the Incarnation as a Trinitarian work leads to practical consequences for Christian living: to encounter Christ is to encounter the whole Trinity. Worship of the incarnate Son honours the Father who sent Him and the Spirit who empowered Him. Christian discipleship draws us into the very life of the Trinity – adopted by the Father, conformed to the Son, and indwelt by the Spirit.

As we prepare for Christmas, I would like to base this reflection on human-divine relationship and invite ourselves to consider once more the central question: Why did God become human?

The Christian God Loves Human Company

Unlike certain religious traditions in which God does not mingle with humanity as God is holy and the world is evil (Greek tradition), God is utterly transcendent and imageless (Judaism and Islam), or conceived more as an impersonal principle (Upanishadic Hinduism), Christianity proclaims a God who desires relationship with humanity. This desire is not born of need, but of love. The God who lacks nothing, complete in the eternal communion of the Trinity, freely creates human beings for friendship, intimacy and shared life.

This divine longing for human company runs throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, shaping our entire understanding of salvation history, and especially the Incarnation.

Created for Communion

The creation narrative reveals that humanity is made in the image and likeness of God, a truth many Church Fathers interpret to mean that we are created for relationship with God. Unlike the rest of creation called into being by divine command, humanity is formed with intimate care; God breathes the breath of life directly into Adam. The Garden of Eden depicts not a distant deity but one who chooses close companionship. The beautiful imagery of God “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), seeking Adam and Eve’s presence amply announces this intimate eagerness of God for relationship.

Sin disrupts, but never destroys God’s desire for this relationship. The question “Where are you?” in Genesis 3:9 reveals a God searching for the beloved who hides. Throughout salvation history, this pattern is repeated: humanity withdraws but God pursues. The covenant with Abraham, the calling of Moses, the prophets’ proclamations – all manifest God’s relentless drive toward relationship.

Biblical Imagery of Divine Desire

Scripture employs the most intimate human relationships to describe God’s longing for human company. God is depicted as a lover seeking the beloved: “gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice” (Song 2:9), a father running to embrace the prodigal son (Lk 15:20), a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep to find the lost one (Mt 18:12). Hosea’s prophetic marriage illustrates God’s faithful love despite betrayal (Hos. 1:2). Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, longing to gather her “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” (Lk 13:34).

Revelation’s culmination envisions not humans ascending to a distant heaven but God descending to dwell with humanity: “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them” (Rev 21:3). The New Jerusalem needs no temple because God’s presence fills everything (Rev 21:22) – another imagery of the ultimate restoration of the Garden of Eden’s companionship.

The Incarnation: God’s Ultimate Pursuit

The Incarnation represents the fullest expression of God’s desire for human company. Fides et Ratio Art. 13 describes it beautifully: “the Eternal entering time, the Whole lying hidden in the part, God taking on a human face.” God doesn’t remain at a safe distance, communicating through intermediaries. Instead, the Second Person of the Trinity takes on human flesh and enters completely into human experience. He became Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is born, grows, hungers, weeps, rejoices, dies. He shares every aspect of human existence except sin.

The Gospel attests, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14), or, as we could say God pitches his tent among us. Interpreting this aspect, the CCC explains that it was to make us partakers of the divine nature, that we might know God’s love, and that we might pursue holiness that this took place (cf. CCC 456-459). But even more intimately, Jesus seeks human friendship during his earthly life. He calls his disciples not servants but friends: “I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15). He dines with tax collectors and sinners (Mk 2:16), welcoming the company others rejected. He weeps at Lazarus’s tomb (Jn 11:35) and delights at wedding celebrations (Jn 2:2). The Gospel portraits a God who genuinely enjoys being with people.

The Eucharistic Presence

Jesus’s institution of the Eucharist before his death reveals the depths of his desire to remain with his people. “Take and eat” (Mt 26:26), he says, offering not merely a memorial but his very self. The Eucharist is Christ’s permanent solution to physical absence; a way to remain with humankind throughout history, truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity. As St. Peter Julian Eymard remarked, “The Eucharist is Jesus past, present and future… In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus is there, body, blood, soul and divinity. He is there for you. He is there waiting for you. He invites you to come and visit Him. He is waiting for you!” Mother Teresa would speak of this great mystery in much simple, but profound terms stating, “When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host, you understand how much Jesus loves you now.” That is what we understand and know when we see the tabernacle lamp burning in our chapels and all the Churches worldwide. It symbolizes an astonishing reality that God is waiting for us, he is desiring our company and that he is ever available for an encounter.

“Where are You?” (Gen 3:9)

Thus if we understand the whole of salvation history as God seeking human company, the question must also be reversed: “Where are we”? It can be seen that this is the question that God asked even to the first man Adam, “Where are you?”, a question that could also be paraphrased as “Why are you hiding from me?” or “Why are you running away from my companionship when I am coming to meet you?”

In this connection Christ, born in the manger, becomes the profound symbol of unity and reconciliation. He is the One who “reconciles all things to Himself” (Col 1:20), restoring creation that had lost its harmony through the first sin of Adam. With that sin, humanity was estranged from God; “Adam and Eve hid from the Lord” (Gen 3:8-10). Discord arose among human beings: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree” (Gen 3:12). Communion with the heavenly hosts was broken; “Cherubim and a flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life” (Gen 3:24). Enmity entered between humanity and the creatures of the earth: “She will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15). Even the harmony of nature was wounded: “Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you” (Gen 3:18).

Yet in the manger, reconciliation begins. There, creation is gathered once more. The star and angels represent the celestial order, the ox and the ass embody the animal kingdom, Joseph and Mary stand for humanity. In the humble crib, heaven and earth meet, and the fractured bonds of creation are drawn back into unity through Christ. Now if the whole of creation is symbolically brought together in the manger, today we need to recreate a crib. We need to have for ourselves the “crib experience” so that Christ can be born anew in our midst, reconciling us and the whole world to Himself.

Therefore, Advent reminds us that God waits for us even more than we wait for Him. He is seeking us. He calls us. He desires our presence. The question remains, “Where am I?”

Yours affectionately in Don Bosco,
Fr Jose Thomas Koyickal SDB
Provincial