St. John Paul II is a hero of mine. He was the face of the Catholic Church as pope for decades and had a profound impact on the modern history of the world. As we gather to celebrate this great feast of Jesus’ birth, a poignant and powerful moment in St. John Paul II’s life is on my mind and heart: his visit to Poland in 1979, not long after he had been elected Pope. At that time Poland still suffered under the weight of the oppressive Communist regime then in power. Pope John Paul II was all too familiar with the atheistic worldview that undergirded first the Nazis and then the Communists, leading them to harshly persecute the Catholic Church in Poland. He had seen many dear friends executed and imprisoned at their hands, and had been ordained a priest in secret years before because of the persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland.
But amidst the backdrop of this oppressive regime, by God’s grace, St. John Paul II strode onto a stage with an altar set up in Victory Square in Warsaw with a gigantic cross erected behind him. This in and of itself was something the Communists were doing their best to stamp out in Poland–public displays of faith and solidarity. But there he was, standing without a worldy army, but definitely coming for battle. St. John Paul II knew that his role in that important moment was to come behind enemy lines not with weapons of worldly warfare but with the weapon of Truth. So he stood there amidst the enormous crowd gathered and with many more tuning in through Polish TV, and spoke beautifully about Jesus. At one point he said:
“…man is incapable of understanding himself fully without Christ. He cannot understand who he is, nor what his true dignity is, nor what his vocation is, nor what his final end is. He cannot understand any of this without Christ.
Therefore Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude of geography. The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man. Without Christ it is impossible to understand the history of Poland, especially the history of the people who have passed or are passing through this land. The history of people. The history of the nation is above all the history of people. And the history of each person unfolds in Jesus Christ. In him it becomes the history of salvation.”
This was a radical thing for the pope to say, and as he spoke, a round of applause broke out spontaneously among the crowds. The pope was calling out the warped, atheistic political regime that ruled there. He was proclaiming in no uncertain terms that Jesus was king of the human heart and that no oppressive regime could stamp out His reign, not in Poland or anywhere. And then the crowds spontaneously began to sing: “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus, Christus imperat,” this Latin hymn translates to: “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands.” The cry of their hearts was for freedom to worship God publicly and loudly, to have Christ reign in their hearts. Later on the same crowd roared: “We want God! We want God!”
This moment was historical for so many reasons, but ultimately it signaled that the anti-Christian and atheistic reign of the Communists had been defeated in the hearts of the Polish people. They loudly and publicly cried out for God that day as a response to the Gospel message of hope and strength preached by St. John Paul II.
I can’t get that moment off of my mind because it is an echo of what we are gathered here and all over the world to celebrate today: the birth of our Savior in human flesh. This baby we celebrate in the manger isn’t any baby, but the One who was foretold by the prophets, looked forward to by generations of the people of Israel, and who came to conquer not in power but in humility and weakness. This little baby is the strangest, but most wonderful and powerful King because he is the only King of our hearts.
St. John Paul II came in power in that gathering for Mass in Warsaw behind enemy lines because he came with Christ the King, Who is victorious over sin and death, Who reigns over all of human history and Who commands us each to follow Him as THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life. Almost two thousand years ago, that King came for the first time behind enemy lines with the strangest weapon of all, the one our ancient foe, the devil, never expected: our humanity.
This is the celebration that is meant to stir our hearts with gladness and joy on this night and throughout our lives. We celebrate because the infant born in a manger was more than just a baby, He was God-made-man, foretold long before His birth so beautifully by the prophet Isaiah, who we heard from in the first reading:
For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
Nobody could have guessed that this little baby named Jesus, in Hebrew Yeshua, which means ‘God Saves,’ would be both God and man. But throughout His life here on earth, this is who Jesus showed Himself to be. He came not with earthly armies, but with an army of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” He came with the power of His divinity united to our frail humanity. He came knowing that this frail humanity united to His Divinity, offered on the Cross for each of us, would give us the greatest possible victory: freedom from the ancient curse of sin and death, freedom bought by the love pouring from His sacred Heart on the Cross. This day shows us the unexpected first appearance of our victorious king, not in power, but in humility, who comes in the most unexpected way to bring us the victory we all need.
The wood of the manger would give way to the wood of the Cross, the swaddling clothes would give way to burial cloths. But finally those burial cloths would be left behind as the God-man strode forward in victory from the grave, inviting each of us into His victory if only we would follow Him. He came in the manger, a rough feeding trough, so that one day we might come to this altar and feed on the simple elements transformed into the Bread of Life, His flesh for the life of the world.
So today we kneel in reverence before the infant king because He has come to reign. His victory is absolute over all that burdens our heavy hearts and our hurting world, in need of Him. Our hearts cry out for the grace that the infant in the manger came to bring us. As we sing our Christmas carols, open our presents, and enjoy our times with family on this Christmas, I pray that we sense the nearness of our King, Jesus, who invites our hearts to rest in Him, to let Him reign. And as we do so, let that cry re-echo in our hearts which resounded through the multitudes in Poland years ago and has continued to sound in the human heart through the generations: “We want God, we want God, we want God!”
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for the infinite generosity you showed the world in sending us your only begotten Son. Jesus, our infant king born on this day, please reign in our hearts and cast out the darkness of sin. Holy Spirit, help us to recognize Jesus’ presence and work with and in us as we celebrate on this day and throughout the season of Christmas. We ask this through the name of Jesus Christ, our King, born on this day. Amen. +