Blogs For Victory

Let’s not forget the reason for the season!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment, 
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth 
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, 
because he was of the house and family of David, 
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child, 
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, 
because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields 
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them 
and the glory of the Lord shone around them, 
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to 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 Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you: 
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes 
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
    “Glory to God in the highest
        and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

For those of us believe this happened, it wasn’t just an event – it was the most important thing that ever happened. God came down from heaven and became one of us – fully man while remaining fully God. Come down out of a deep concern not for a mass of people, but each one of us, individually.

Many people disdain this notion on grounds of the size of the Universe – “come on, you think God would bother with the people on this bit of dust lost in the wastes of Space?”. Well, yeah. And, indeed, the fact that we’re not finding any life remotely near to us indicates that this mote of dust might be pretty important…perhaps even unique. One thing certain, if there is other life out there, it is so far away we’ll probably never encounter it (we would have heard some sort of intelligible radio transmission if there was anyone within, say, a hundred light years of us). Part of the problem is that people continue to think in human terms – the vastness of Space might contain many billions of planets, none of which have life…which, to us, seems strange. But perhaps God just likes making planets and they are each interesting to Him, even if not to us?

But the main thing, for us, is that event: God made flesh. If you don’t believe it happened, then the whole story is meaningless. If you believe it did, then you’ve opened up your mind to a startling concept: you’re worth something. In fact, worth quite a lot. You’re not a mere cipher. You matter. That, I think, is what really bothers people about the whole story – we don’t want to matter. Well, strictly speaking, we don’t want anyone else to matter. We don’t, that is, want to feel obligated to others (this, “we”, of course applying to the general run of humanity – not those who actually believe). We want a world where we don’t have to give a darn about others…where a “sorry to hear that” is sufficient before we move on to fussing about our own concerns.

The difference is the railroad engineer who drove Jews to the gas chambers and those who tried to stop Hitler…even if it meant not just their own deaths, but the deaths of everyone they knew. You see, a Stauffenberg knew that his life and the life of his wife and children were not more important than everyone else’s. That there was nothing to live for if one stood aside while others suffered. And, of course, Stauffenberg was a devout Christian. He went along with the Nazis as long as he could figuring that the fever would break and an honorable Germany would emerge…but it eventually became clear that the fever wasn’t going to break and action had to be taken…even if totally forlorn action. And so it was, and the world was given a hero for all ages to admire.

It is belief in that event in Bethlehem that makes the difference. Which makes real self-sacrifice even possible. Not the bravery that stands up to an enemy army, but the bravery that stands up to evil, itself, even when there is absolutely no hope you can beat it. Which says, aloud, “I don’t care what you do to me and mine, I am your enemy and will fight you”.

And, also, it lets us know – we can’t lose. To give a minor spoiler about Book X, I put into Fred’s mouth this very idea: that evil, in the end, is nothing. Just stand up to it. It is ok to feel pain. To die. Just don’t give into it. The Life of the World to Come will make all of this as if it has never been. Every tear will be wiped away. That is the most important thing, I think, for us to grasp today – we can’t lose. They will lose. They can’t do otherwise…they believe in nothing. A plague and a nuisance they very much are…but not at all important…unless, by God’s grace, they come to understand that it is Mary, laying her child in a manger, who was central to the most important event that ever happened.