What Christmas Is About

ONE

What do we really celebrate at Christmas?

A marvelous exchange. St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catechism express it this way; “The only begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.” 

The only gift God has to give is divinity, His divine life. That is the gift He is offering to you.

O Marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.

TWO

God offered Satan a share in divinity. Satan threw it away.

Now he wants us to throw it away. So, he spreads a lie that sows distrust in God and the Catholic Church. That lie goes something like this; “The Church does not want your good. It wants power over you. They are trying to suppress you, prevent you from becoming your true self. Reject them and do what you want. Then you will be free and happy, then you will become like God.”

Satan destroys the image of God in us by tempting us to distrust God and the Church so that we throw it away.

THREE

What makes us valuable is God’s image and his divinity in us.

Reject that and our value is gone. Then we try to make ourselves valuable by our achievements which are never good enough and they don’t last. Once we turn away from God and only look at ourselves we see only our flaws and limitations. Then begins to develop in us a deep self-loathing.

When you don’t feel good about yourself you begin to fear and hate others. This results in a dreadful isolation and loneliness. This is the root cause of rampant anxiety and depression, fear and hate so many are experiencing.

FOUR

The antidote to Satan is the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

God has nothing to give except divinity. The Father gives divinity to the Son. The Son receives divinity and gives it back to the Father. The Holy Spirit receives all the divinity from the Father and the Son. Then the Holy Spirit floods the soul of Mary at her conception. The Holy Spirit, being pure receptive in her, receives all the divinity from the Father and the Son, conceiving Jesus in her womb.

Mary receives God. That is what makes her great.

Now invite the Holy Spirit and Mary to come into your soul to receive divinity in you.

That is what consecration to Mary is.  

Mary says; “Give me your heart, and I will put Jesus in them and make you my apostles.”

FIVE

We restore the image of God in people by taking initiative, being interested and delighting in them.

Find something good in a person and delight in them. Then, maybe they will begin to recognize the good in them, the image of God in them. And maybe they will desire the divinity God has to offer them.

What’s the method?

Put your screens away and spend time together. Cook a meal or go out to eat. Take a walk. Play cards or a board game or cribbage. And talk.

People say they want the Church to listen to them. What they mean deep down is that they are desperate for someone to really know them, understand them and listen for them.

You be that person.