Once, at this time of year, a group of young kids from a housing project was visiting with me. I asked them what their Christmas was going to be like, and then I asked them a follow-up question: Why do we have Christmas? None of their families were churched, and so the only reason they could give me was that it is a family holiday. Maybe at a profound level they are right. “We are family,” the universe, everything in it including us, and God. It’s not just a cute baby born today but “Christ … the first-born of all creation” (Col 1:15). Centuries ago the Franciscan school of theology (Duns Scotus) taught that God so wants to be united in flesh and spirit with us that Christ would have become human even if no one had sinned. Or in Richard Rohr’s words: “Christ is the masterpiece of love in the midst of a creation designed for love, not the divine plumber come to fix the mess of original sin.” That’s why we long for union and abhor its absence, which is loneliness, for we are created images of a God who so loves this world!
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia