“Of his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace”
The Advent and Christmas season is a busy time with all manner of expectations, all manner of anxieties, all manner of fears and worries. There is a rich fullness, to be sure, to Christmas itself.
It is something which one day cannot presume to capture nor that even twelve days with all the festivities of our social, family and communal gatherings can ever hope to exhaust. Such things belong, to be sure, to the rich fullness of this season, but only as attendant events. They circle about the central scene of Christmas. In a way, the businesses of the Advent and Christmas season are really only our poor attempt to capture something of the rich fullness of the Mystery of Christmas.
In truth, there is but one poor, humble scene of Christmas. It is the stable of Bethlehem. Therein lies all the rich fullness of Christmas. That poor, humble scene contains a great crowd of scenes, a great gathering of Christmasses; in short, it opens to view a rich fullness of grace, even “grace upon grace,” to use John’s arresting phrase. There is more here, we may say, than meets the eye. It is altogether something for the soul. We are bidden to ponder the Mystery of the Word made flesh. The attitude of the Church is an essentially Marian attitude. “Mary kept all these things” – all these wondrous things that were said about the Child Christ by Shepherds and Angels – “and pondered them in her heart.” And only so can they come to birth and live in us.
There is the Christmas of the Shepherds, the Christmas of the Angels, the Christmas of Mary and Joseph and Christ’s holy birth, the Christmas, too, of Christ’s heavenly, eternal birth for “there was not when he was not.” And then there shall be the Christmas of the Gentiles in the coming of the Magi, without which, too, we would not have Christmas. For in their coming Christmas is “omni populo,” for all people. In the coming of the Magi, it is Christmas still and yet again. Christmas is more Christmas, not less, a richer fullness than ever we had envisioned. All come to Bethlehem. All belong to the rich fullness of that poor, humble scene.
The stable at Bethlehem is the great stage upon which the pageant of our redemption is played. This fullness of significance is not something hidden from view. It is made plain in the dance of story and song which weaves in and out of the rich tapestry of glory in the days of Christmas: there is the martyrdom of St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church; there is the contemplative vision of St. John the Evangelist; there are the heart-rending deaths of the little ones – the Holy Innocents – who die in the name of Christ who has come to die for them and for us; and there is the Circumcision and the Naming of the Holy Child, “his name was called Jesus” by Angels, by Joseph, by Mary, and so by us. There is blood in Bethlehem, the blood of our redemption. And yet, these are all part and parcel of the mystery of Christmas.
And there is both a journeying to and from Bethlehem – the coming of Shepherds and Angels, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. The great pageant of our redemption is played upon the stage of the poor, humble stable of Bethlehem. Is it not a wonder, all this rich fullness of Christmas? Is it not a wonder to behold?
But to behold that scene is not to stand afar off as some mere spectators, as those who look and pass by but do not stop and see, as those who do not enter in to partake of what is given. No. To behold is to enter into what we behold, to be with what we see; in short, to become what we contemplate. Such is the double grace of Christmas, wonderfully captured in John’s profound phrase “of his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.”
There is the grace of our beholding the wonder which we are given to see. But there is, as well, the additional grace of our being with what we behold. The Mystery of Christmas is not some distant and remote scene; it is played ever so close to home. It is the Mystery of Emmanuel, the Mystery of God with us. We are given to see and we are given to be with what we see.
In prayer and praise, in pageant and song, in Word and Sacrament, we participate in the Mystery which we behold. The Mystery of God with us is also the Mystery of our being with Christ. Such is the rich fullness of Christmas. It is the fullness of the grace of Christ for us. Perhaps, it is all captured in a phrase:
“Of his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace”
Fr. David Curry
AMD Christmas Service
December 12th, 2010
2:00pm