God is with Us

In the days before Christmas, I read something that reminded that the meaning of Christmas cannot be understood unless we also understand the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord.

On Christmas Eve, I went to a midnight Mass at a nearby parish. The priest who said the Mass was a slightly older, very jolly, very down-to-earth guy who happened to be from the Philippines. In his sermon, he said one thing which stuck hard with me:

Jesus did not come to take away our sufferings but to give meaning to them.

Chew on that one for a while. Indeed, one could spend one's entire life reflecting on it with the greatest profit.