And we can we go further and see the ‘truth’ and ‘beauty’ of Christmas. I choose these words as they go back to Aristotle and the beginning of philosophy in the west. The truth of Christmas is in the way God interrupted human history. It was a dismal history of despots and empires, slavery and wars. The only way humanity could be cured was by getting inside it, becoming part of it and saving it from within. God had to begin as all humans do – in the womb. As one of us, he could show us the way – even to death on a cross. That is the truth.
Beauty? Where is the beauty in a man bleeding and disfigured, dying in agony and disowned by the very people he came to help? There seems to be no beauty there but we can glimpse something when we see a player crowning his hours of training with a ‘beautiful’ goal. We cannot ‘make’ beauty. It is always something given. Great artists, great musicians, will always say, ‘you can practise till the cows come home but in the end beauty in art is a gift.’ The poet, Yeats, wrote, after the Easter Rising in Ireland (1916) when fifteen rebels were executed by the British, ‘a terrible beauty is born’. What did he mean? It seems he meant, when a person gives everything – even their own life – it is something we can only call beauty.
Our age is one of calculation. What are the expected results? ‘Let’s see …’ has become our default reaction. We are children of the ‘Enlightenment’, the age of reason, which gave us incalculable benefits but also demands proofs before we commit ourselves. When you enter marriage, you cannot be certain how it will work out. But if we give ourselves totally to each other, it will work out – and it will be beautiful! This most beautiful event in our lives carries no guarantees. When Mary said her ‘yes’ she had no idea what would happen next.
What word can we use except beauty for the reaching out into the dark Mary makes or the married couple make. Aristotle put truth and beauty as the apex of our dignity and our destiny.
But there is one word missing: love. Love gives us the energy to reach out beyond ourselves. Oh, that we could do that!
Christmas Day, 2024 Is 9:2-7 Tit 2:11-14 Lk 2:1-14
Post published in: Faith