Christmas 2

I recently read a collection of essays on the subject of zombies in modern culture. I was shocked to find those old movies were actually a condemnation of Western society; an account of our ecological ignorance; and racist propaganda. I thought they were just fun entertainment. Which only goes to show how very little I know. Yet, even I can see that a great self-loathing has crept into the world around me. Those possessed of this notion say it as a natural result of higher intelligence and better education. Who am I to say they are wrong?  

Nevertheless, these otherwise intelligent, educated people can’t find a solution to their disappointment with themselves and their world. They will not believe that their want of an answer lies in the blind resolve that the answer cannot possibly already exist. Like Dorothy searching Oz, they are seeking some magical answer in human wizardry. There is no such answer, and yet, they have possessed the solution and the means all the while.

When light shines on our inner man so that we can clearly see our works, a bit of self-loathing is inevitable. It has been that way since Adam wrapped himself in fig leaves. But, the God we are hiding from is the solution. Two thousand years ago He came to Earth, born as one of us, that He might save those groaning under the burden of sin and self-loathing.

The great joy of Christmas is that God’s gift of light and life transforms men. As the light of a single star lit the dark over Bethlehem to herald the coming of salvation, so the light of Christ shines in today’s darkness. The darkness cannot extinguish it. Men may turn away. They may refuse to see. Still, the light shines and in beholding that light a new world and a new man appears.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”