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The birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth has split history in two so that
each calendar is reckoned before or after His birth. The year in which He
was born marks the period known as Anno Domini, and the years before that
as BC. ('Before Christ')
Our Lord's Nativity is observed on December 25. The early church fathers
made the birth date of our Lord deliberately to coincide with and offset
the pagan celebration of Saturnalia, that festive pagan day of celebration
in which the sun crossed the imaginary line drawn on the later-day maps as
the equator.
To the pagans it signified a rebirth of the sun, now returning to the
north to assert its full power and bring on the spring season; but to the
Christians it marked the birthday celebration of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God who had created not only the sun, but all the other stars and planets
of the universe.
Jesus Christ who on more than one occasion said simply, "Follow me,"
leaving no chart but that which lies in the true Christian heart and which
requires no formula beyond that which we call "love."
The Old Testament abounds in testimony of the coming Messiah, long
anticipated by the prophets, who were aware that the original sin of man
who was stained by evil in the Garden of Eden could only be cleansed by
the blood of a Messiah sent by God. The theological recognition of God as
representing universal love also recognized that God chose to share love
with man, and for that purpose was man and woman created.
A second premise is that man has it within his grasp to find happiness;
and a third, that in doing so he glorifies God in whose image he was
created. That placed man in harmony with God and nature; but this harmony
was shattered by Adam and Eve who, in the disobedience of God in paradise,
lost their membership in the alliance and were at the mercy of nature, as
well as the mercy of God.
Man had fallen from grace and had no mastery over nature; but God, in his
infinite mercy, was not about to obliterate that which was cast in His own
image. Therefore, He saw to it that with the ascendancy of a sun in winter
He gave to the world His only begotten Son.
The Christian soul has been spared because on December 25 the Savior was
born, and God so loved the world He had created that He sacrificed his Son
thirty-three short years later for the redemption of all mankind. The star
that shone over Bethlehem on the eve of the Savior's birth to light the
way for the Wise Men of the East still shines as an eternal beacon in the
hearts of all those who have Jesus Christ in their hearts. |
