Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
James Martin, S.J.December 23, 2019
Photo by Laura Seaman on Unsplash

Subscribe to “The Examen” for free on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe to “The Examen” for free on Google Play
Join our Patreon Community

To everyone listening to this podcast this week, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas. And I hope that in the middle of whatever way you mark Christmas Day, that you take some time out in prayer to ponder the deeper meaning of Christmas. Around this time of year, I’m often asked, by a variety of people, about the “real meaning” of Christmas—as if it’s some big secret. And perhaps these days it is something of a secret, because, at least in the West, the celebration of Christmas can feel like it’s almost overwhelmed by commercialism. The other day a friend of mine said that living and working in Manhattan can make it feel especially hard to appreciate Christmas, because all you think about are the crowds. 

So what is the real meaning of Christmas? Well, it’s that God became human. And that’s still a tremendously subversive message. The ineffable, inaccessible, incomprehensible Creator of the Universe became a human being, who was born. And God comes to us in the most vulnerable way possible—as an infant, completely dependent on us for his care. And notice that God enters the world naked and vulnerable and then, at the Crucifixion, leaves the world naked and vulnerable. God did this for us so that we might come to know and love and follow him more closely, as he lived among us, for his 33 years on earth. The Daily Examen is one way to encounter God in the Spirit, as he walks among the days of your life. So this week during your Examen, to celebrate Christmas, maybe just give thanks for the gift of Jesus in our lives, Emmanuel, God with us. And with you.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Francis greets Professor Joseph Stiglitz at the "Debt Crisis in the Global South" meeting at the Vatican in June 2024 (Vatican Media)
An interview on economics and Catholic social teaching with Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist and a professor at Columbia University.
Kevin ClarkeApril 03, 2025
Lesson one: I had to buy more stamps.
Valerie SchultzApril 03, 2025
Celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea should give new energy to evangelization efforts, a new document from the International Theological Commission says.
In this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell walk us through the pontiff’s recovery, including “slight improvements” in his speech.
Inside the VaticanApril 03, 2025