Christmas shows God is with humankind: Bishop Conley
December 26, 2012: Christmas shows God is with humankind despite the evils of the
world, said Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, adding that Christians must
“find the miraculous amid the ordinary.”
“Christmas declares that our world
is not insignificant. Christmas declares that we are worth being loved. Christmas
affirms that God walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ; that he loves us enough
to become like us, to suffer, and to die,” said Bishop Conley in his column in the
Southern Nebraska Register.
“Through the Incarnation, Christ shows us the true
value and dignity of everyday life. Christ shows the possibility of overcoming the
sin that leads to tragedies like the murders in Connecticut last week”, he added.
The
bishop said that the murder of 20 children and six adults in a Newtown, Conn. elementary
school Dec. 14 makes some people “doubt that a God of total love could tolerate the
existence of such evil.”
However, Bishop Conley countered that God's love is
“beyond measure” and in his eyes “small things, simple things, are beautiful.”
“That
is why the maker of the farthest galaxies reaches out to us with the hand of a newborn
child,” he said. “We are small, but greatly loved by God. Our world is flawed, but
not beyond redemption. And Christ has lowered himself to our level in order to raise
us up to his, for all eternity.”
Bishop Conley wrote that Christmas challenges
those who believe that God is “far from us,” but it also challenges believers who
do not live as if God is near.
“We must learn to see things as God does. To
him, nothing is insignificant and no one is forgotten,” he said. “Like the shepherds
on Christmas night, we are called to find the miraculous amid the ordinary. The greatest
mystery, God’s love for us, always lies hidden in plain sight. Nothing is ordinary
when seen in light of the Incarnation.”
He encouraged Christians to find Jesus
in “ordinary” places like daily work and in their neighbors and in the poor.