CHRISTMAS / HUMILITY

Isaiah 9:1-7

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;

on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. You
have made their gladness greater, you have made their joy increase;
they rejoice in your presence as men rejoice at harvest time, as men
are happy when they are dividing the spoils.

For the yoke that was weighing on him, the bar across his shoulders,
the rod of his oppressor, these you break as on the day of Midian.
For all the footgear of battle, every cloak rolled in blood, is burned
and consumed by fire. For there is a child born for us, a son given
to us, and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name
they shall give him: Wonder-counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace. Wide is His dominion in a peace that has no end,
for the throne of David and for His royal power, which He
establishes and makes secure in justice and integrity. From this time
onward and forever, the jealous love of the Lord will do this.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light... This is to
be our experience. We are the people who walk in darkness, in shadows.
This Child, the light of the Fathers Thirst, has shone in our darkness.
What great joy He has brought us by this mystery! Without Him, without
the light of His love, it is impossible for us to achieve this joy and peace.
We have seen the ugliness of sin. But we know that alone and unaided,
despite all our good intentions, we could never save ourselves from this
darkness and sadness of sin. He comes, and He fills us with gladness. The
yoke that weighed on me, He has broken. The Prince of Peace is a warrior
first. He has lifted the terrible weight of my selfish thirst. Lucifer had said
of himself, I shall not thirst for Him. And the rod of this oppressor, the
devil, you have broken.

The wounds that we have caused in others, in ourselves, are consumed now
by the fire of His love the fire of His Presence. A Child is born for me
Gods Son is given to me. Dominion is laid upon His shoulders. Christ the
Lord, the Lord of my life, has dominion over every moment of my
existence. Christ the Lord is born for me. It is He who is going to lead me
through the desert. He will come to me in unexpected, beautiful ways. He
is the Mighty God, Wonder-Counselor, Word of the Fathers Thirst, the
Prince of Peace. He is my peace, the peace that surpasses all
understanding, which nothing and no one can take away from me. The
plan that the Father has for me, He establishes and makes secure in sending
me His Son. How is it that the jealous love of the Father, the expression of
His Thirst His power is expressed in a Child? This Child was chosen to
be the first expression of Gods loving Thirst, because there is something in
the very nature of love which at first we do not perceive that hidden but
necessary something is humility. God is a Being of humility. The
Incarnation is the first revelation of the Father by Jesus as He Himself
has assured us: He who sees Me sees the Father. The humiliation of
Jesus in the crib and on the cross are not exceptional moments in the
revelation of the Father; they are rather the two pillars of Gods humility of
love as the heart of His glory and His being. It is the essence of Gods
self-revelation, the closest thing He can show us about Himself. He is
humble love, lowering Himself before His creatures to say I Thirst.

Love, mixed with pride, is not true love. Pride is a refusal to love, and
therefore it cannot thirst. Thirst requires humility. If humility is at the
heart of love, and if God is Love, then we can also say that God is
humility. It is not poetry or fiction that God places Himself in a state of
chosen dependence and thirst for me (not an intrinsic dependence, for He
is God, but a freely chosen dependence). Love by its very nature is a
willed dependence on the beloved: I shall follow you wherever you shall
go. It is also saying, I give you the power to wound me; real love
makes me vulnerable before the one I choose to love. The Father says:
Son you are My joy, I cannot be Father without You. He depends on Jesus
for His joy and His role in the Trinity! This Child is the most eloquent way
of saying to humanity: I Thirst for you, for your love and care. To say
Thirst includes then not only love and mercy, but also humility, this great
unexpected humility of the Father. God the Father, in His Son lying in the
manger, has made Himself vulnerable to me, vulnerable to my love or my
rejection. The humility of God Almighty became a Child is His most
eloquent way of saying I Thirst.

The infinite power and majesty of God, which is a power and majesty of
LOVE, is such that it could not have been expressed in any other way. If
God is infinite Love, then God is infinite humility! Think about that for a
moment, and then the crib and the cross will make sense. So, as we gaze
on the crib, we see the first cry of the Fathers Thirst on the lips of this
child. What an astounding mystery! God comes to me in the form of a
Child. Even the angels understood that Child is a resounding thunder, a
glorious light, the perfect image of the Thirst of the Father! Joy to the
world! Glory to God in the highest, and peace to us on earth who have
savored the thirsting love of this Child!