Yesterday’s Gospel and today’s both speak of illness and Jesus curing the sick. Sickness – we are all sick in one form or another: mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally; we all grow old, make mistakes, have accidents – we bring it all to Jesus for comfort and healing.

Sickness is so much a part of human life. Illness, like failure, reveals to us the truth of our human condition: ‘of ourselves we can do nothing.’ It is when we are sick that we realize how dependent we are. And it is here, face to face with our weakness, our emptiness, our incapacity, that God comes to meet us. As St Paul reminds us, ‘it is when I am weak that I am strong.’ Or again, ‘God’s weakness is stronger, God’s foolishness wiser, than anything we can do.’

Let us bring our sicknesses to Jesus, lay them at his feet, trust in his mercy and power, allow him to carry us to safety and peace.

In today’s Gospel Jesus heals a man with a withered hand. The pharisees object because he does it on the Sabbath. The man’s hand is withered and Jesus heals it. The pharisees’ minds and hearts on the other hand not only wither but even worse harden in that shrunken condition because they cannot recognize pure goodness when they see it. The result is they go out and plot to kill Jesus. Hatred cannot abide Love.

Our hands too are ‘withered,’ unable to accomplish our good desires.  Try as we might, the good we want to do falls short, our efforts are fruitless – until we are touched by Jesus’ glance, his saving touch.

Lord Jesus, make our hands, our minds and hearts, beautiful for you, strong and healthy in doing your work. Help us to see, to understand, to do your will always, not shrinking back, not counting the cost.

Incarnation – God personally entering our finite world by taking on a human body in a specific time and place.  The mystery is unfathomable!  And it  transforms everything: The invisible has become visible; the  changeless changing – and vice-versa:  the changing is caught up into the changeless; matter and spirit cannot be separated.

Our minds are small, narrow.  We think by division: left is not right, right is not wrong, top is not bottom.  We understand by making comparisons: this is not that.  We separate; we dichotomize.  It takes great effort to encompass the whole.

The mystery of the Incarnation puts everything back together again.  God became human so that we humans could realize the spark of divinity within ourselves. “We are as gods,” we read.    There is no difference between sacred and profane once God is present to our world. We are not Jew or Greek, male or female, as St Paul reminds us. Or rather, more exactly, the differences remain; we do not confuse the two. Instead, we make them one  by finding all things in God.  We need only open our eyes to see his beauty everywhere.

Who God is for us – and who we are to God – is beautifully expressed in the liturgical texts for this day. Jesus’ name – God’s name – is who God is:  ‘God Saves.’  We have nothing to fear; all is made whole, ransomed, redeemed, in the person – the name – of Jesus. All we could hope for or desire is already promised if we ask for it in Jesus’ name. Jesus is always here for us, living to intercede for us.

On our part, God’s name – the name of Jesus – is to be honored among us. We are to praise and glorify his name; teach and proclaim his name, do everything in his name. When we gather we gather in his name. And, on occasion, we may have to suffer for his name.

In the end, God’s name – the name of Jesus – his person – as well as our own new name will be emblazoned on our forehead. We will be recognized as his because we bear his name. What glory will be ours in that day.

Christmas is God come to live among us – revealed, made manifest. The invisible has become visible. We can see God, hear him, touch him with our own hands. What we read in the Gospels in another place: “What is spoken in secret will be shouted from the housetops.”

The secret is that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. We live and move and have our being in him. Our task is to allow this presence to come to light; it must pervade our every thought; our thoughts must be expressed in the way we act. What animates us within must must come to light without. Everyone should see how kind we are.

Kind because God’s presence – present in everyone, everything – draws forth that kindness. Heart speaks to heart. God within me seeks and finds and recognizes God’s presence all around me, in every person I encounter, in all times and circumstances. O God, reveal yourself to us, present in every creature.