Spirituality: “Christmas: Ever Since I Became Your Brother …” by Karl Rahner, S.J.

And now God says to us what he has already side to the world as a whole through his grace-filled birth: “I am there. I am with you. I am your life. I am your time. I am the gloom of your daily routine. Why will you not bear it? I weep your tears – pour yours out to me, my child. I am your joy. Do not be afraid to be happy, for ever since I wept, joy is the standard of living that is really more suitable than the anxiety and grief of those who think they have no hope. I am the blind alleys of all your paths, for when you no longer know how to go any further, then you have reached me, foolish child, though you are not aware of it. I am in your anxiety for I have shared it by suffering it. And in doing so, I wasn’t even heroic according to the wisdom of the world. I am in the prison of your finiteness, for my love has made me your prisoner. When the totals of your plans and your life’s experiences do not balance out evenly, I am the unsolved remainder. And I know that this remainder, which makes you so frantic, is in reality my love that you do not yet understand. I am present in your needs. I have suffered them and they are now transformed, but not obliterated from my heart …

This reality – incomprehensible wonder of my almighty love – I have sheltered safely in the cold stable of your world. I am there. I no longer go away from this world, even if you do not see me now … I am there. It is Christmas. Light the candles. They have more right to exist than all the darkness. It is Christmas, Christmas that lasts forever.

Source: Excerpted from The Great Church Year: The Best of Karl Rahner’s Homilies, Sermons, and Meditations, pp. 19-26.