The Lord of History

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

We look forward to the Octave of Christmas, when we celebrate the Birth of Our Savior —the most sublime Mystery of our faith, aside from Easter.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  

God reveals, through the voice of the beloved Apostle, that the same Child born to us in Bethlehem was also in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:2-3).  God’s purpose for his good creation, “which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time”, was “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:9-10).

Saint Paul says elsewhere:  “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:17-20).

It is good to be reminded of the true significance of this Birth.  Some of the Fathers described it thus: … “He incorporated Himself into our humanity and it into himself. Whole and entire he will bear this Humanity to Calvary, whole and entire he will raise it from the dead, whole and entire he will save it …” The Eternity of God enters into history — the Bridegroom comes for His Bride, to reunite Heaven and Earth.  

In the words of Pope Saint John Paul II:  “Christ is the Lord of time; he is its beginning and its end; every year, every day and every moment are embraced by his Incarnation and Resurrection, and thus become part of the ‘fullness of time’ ” (Tertio millenio adveniente, 10). Thus, every time, every moment, is not purely transitory; it is an eternal dimension. 

After His Ascension, Jesus Christ did not become a presence of mere spirit, dwelling only within the believer’s heart.  He is sacramentally present to us by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — and we are able to receive, touch, kneel in front of and adore Him.  Our Lord made this divine promise to his followers: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

In the covenantal and Eucharistic worship of Christ’s historical sacrifice, through the sacramental mediation of His Bride, the Church, we encounter the Divine Presence in the “one flesh,” always having access to the Father — “through Him, and with Him, and in Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”