Time is the very fabric of human experience – yet we struggle to understand it. Nevertheless, in this state of quandary we are in good company. St. Augustine himself once asked: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to explain it to a questioner, I know not”. Certain moments of the year call us to focus on time. Christmas is one of these moments. At Christmas, we celebrate the Incarnation – the moment when God entered time. Of course, the Incarnation should cause us to ask: why did God enter time? The answer should always surprise us – God entered time so that we might enter eternity.
We are beings in time. This means that our existence is stretched out over the course of time. My past self is gone; my future self is yet to be. I only exist in the present. As such, I never exist in totality. I am exiled from myself, divided into pieces that span my timely existence. My existence is stretched – like butter spread thin over too much bread. Thus, human existence is tragic. We can never be fully present to ourselves. However, God entered time.
God – being immutable – is also eternal, meaning he is entirely present to himself. The potency of his awesome power is caught up in a single moment – the Eternal Present. However, God – eternal and immutable – “became Flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He became an infant subject to the laws of time. His timely existence, like ours, was divided into pieces, each moment existing only after the previous moment had passed away. Yet, while he shared in our human nature, he retained his full divinity – “for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19).
What, then, does Jesus’ Incarnation accomplish for us? His Incarnation creates a bridge between humanity and Divinity; between our timely existence and God’s Eternal Presence. We can now, through Jesus, exist in God. If we exist in God, if we place every moment in him, we can exist in totality. All of our moments, past, present and future, are forever present to God. Thus, only God can hold our entire selves together.
This Christmas, let us remember that we are radically incomplete without Jesus. We exist in a state of exile – even from ourselves – until we are reconciled with him. Come, let us approach the Christ Child. Come, let us adore the Son of Mary. Come, let us behold Jesus – and allow him to draw us into his Eternal Presence – where time no longer stretches us thin, but where Eternity holds us forever fast.
Ian Mahood– St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta