The Joy of Christmas

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[The Divine Source of all that is] did not merely assume a human body and soul [in Jesus]; [It] assumed the actual human condition in its entirety, including the instinctual needs of human nature and the cultural conditioning of [a certain] time. [By emerging within] the human condition [in this way, the sacred through Jesus] introduced into the entire human family the principle of transcendence, giving the evolutionary process a decisive thrust toward God-consciousness. [God in Jesus gave all the power] to know their Divine Source.

The joy of Christmas is the intuition that all limitations to growth into higher states of consciousness have been overcome. The Divine Light cuts across all darkness, prejudice, preconceived ideas, prepackaged values, false expectations, phoniness and hypocrisy. It presents us with the truth. To act out of the truth is to make Christ [i.e., Divine Love] grow not only in ourselves, but in others. The humdrum duties and events of daily life become sacramental, shot through with eternal implications.

– Thomas Keating

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Christmas 2018 – Reflections and Celebrations
• Christmas in America, 2018
• Christmas 2017 – Reflections and Celebrations
• Christmas 2016 – Reflections and Celebrations
• Christmas 2015 – Reflections and Celebrations
• Christmas 2014 – Reflections and Celebrations
• Celebrating the Coming of the Sun and the Son
• Christmastide Approaches
• No Room for Them
• The Christmas Tree as Icon, Inviting Us to Contemplate the "One Holy Circle" of Both Dark and Light
• Quote of the Day – December 1, 2014
• Something to Cherish (2012)
• A Christmas Message of Hope . . . from Uganda (2011)
• Quote of the Day – December 26, 2010
• Christmas in Australia (2010)
• John Dear on Celebrating the Birth of the Nonviolent Jesus
• A Bush Christmas (2009)
• A Story of Searching and Discovery
• The Christmas Truce of 1914
• Clarity and Hope: A Christmas Reflection (2007)
• An Australian Christmas (2006)
• A Christmas Reflection by James Carroll

Image: Mauna Nada (2018).