SPSE’s Atlanta, GA, team is remaining active during the winter months.Taking advantage of crowds gathered recently in nearby Lawrenceville, the team not only wished everyone “Merry Christmas” and offered them a Rosary, but also took the time to remind them of the Birth of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate.
The Christmas story is our story. It begins with God creating Creation “Good!” But then our first parents turned from God and did evil — and so death and the tendency to sin entered human existence, in turn defacing Creation around us. But the Good News is: God didn’t leave us in this mess of our own making. Instead, He sent us His Only Son — Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, truly God and truly human. And He did this for at least 4 reasons (cf. CCC 457–460).
Jesus Christ, the Word of God, became flesh to SAVE US from sin and its eternal consequence — separation from God forever. He reconciled us with God, Who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10).
Jesus Christ became flesh so we might KNOW GOD’S LOVE. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 Jn 4:9). Once we understand God’s love in the Incarnation, we can also begin to perceive His love in the beauty He surrounds us with in nature.
Jesus Christ became flesh to be our model of holiness. “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning” (Heb 4:15). Jesus shows us with His Own life that holiness is possible. He calls us to become the human beings He designed us to be.
Most astonishing of all, “The Word became flesh to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature’” (CCC 460). This promise is directly from the Bible: “He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).
This is why there is such JOY among Christians in this season.
And THIS is why we take Jesus Christ and the Church that He founded to the streets. People NEED to know about this! And you can help.