Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world; for thereby they that worshipped the stars were instructed by a star to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know Thee, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory be to Thee.
The cosmos is illuminated.
Not just one nation, not even one as God blessed as our own Republic, but all peoples, nations, tribes, ethnic groups are blessed. Wherever people draw together and saw “we” there is light at Christmas.
This includes those of us who are sinners. The Light does not come to justify our mistakes, errors, or sins. The Light comes in agreement with our secret sighs: we have missed the mark and know we will go on missing. God shines divine Light and we know that He loves us.
He does not love our sins.
He does not justify our sins.
God loves us and divine love justifies us.
The obvious things to say, so plain that everyone sane must say them, is: no race, no people, no nation, no tribe is beyond God’s love. If life exists on another planet around another star, as I dearly hope is true, then the light of Christmas shines there as well. Bethlehem is the center of the cosmos every Christmas.
We do not know if there is life on other planets or if it will ever visit us, but if the unlikely happens and we are visited, then odds are as good as anything that they will be pilgrims to the Church of the Nativity. Christmas is cosmic: the Word became flesh here.
This planet is not big at all as the cosmos goes, something the ancients knew. We are not important, due to size, but to meaningful history. We have it and there is no evidence for any such history anyplace else. This planet has abundant life, and is the site of the Incarnation. Earth has cosmic importance.
Why us?
Perhaps, because we are the only “us” there is.
If not, perhaps because we are most mucked up, fallen and in need of help to stand. This much we know: the Logic became human and lived in our midst. We saw Him. We killed Him (of course!), but He did not stay dead (naturally!). Christmas was the beginning of the end of our isolation from the Divine and whatever else is happening in the vast cosmos.
We have something to share. Our science might easily be surpassed. Our mathematics can be discovered by any sentient race. Socrates and Shakespeare are sublime, but other peoples would have their won sages. We need not fear in sending an embassy to any race or planet: Planet Earth would have Jesus: the Word made flesh. This is a cosmic wonder, whatever else has happened in the vast reaches of the Heavens.
The science fiction of my youth got round this marvel by pretending every planet would have countless such messiahs. Of course, we would have to ask if those countless other messiahs were historic or rational. We do not know, of course, what “other planets” might have as religions, but if Christianity is true (as best reason and experience says it is), then mayhap all the sentient cosmos looks to us: the home of Christmas.
Bethlehem rocked the cosmos and the puckish this Christmastide might suggest that the first alien to visit Earth might say: Christ is born! Glorify Him!
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