The opening of the Gospel of John continues to inspire and amaze.  John boldly proclaims “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”

As Catholics we believe that the world was created ex nihlio, that is “out of nothing.”  The Creation account consistently repeats the phrase “and God said..”.  God didn’t roll his sleeves up, prepare the materials, gather His tools, and create the world.  No, he SPOKE it into existence, out of nothing.

And we know that all things were created through Christ who was the  Word.  And when it came time, at just the right time, Christ became flesh.  He who spoke the world – all we see, all we taste, all we touch, all we feel – into existence came onto the scene as an infant.  The etymology of our modern word infant comes from the Latin “infans” meaning “unable to speak.”

And so, on this Christmas morning we ponder the infant Christ, born of a Virgin, foretold by prophets, heralded by angels, blessed by shepherds and made possible through Spirit.  Let us set our minds on the manger of Bethlehem, where the Word made flesh humbled Himself in the most unimaginable way possible  as the Word, unable to speak.