"The Central Event of History"

"The Central Event of History" | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Ignatius Insight | January 12, 2009

"We know that it (Birth of Christ) celebrates the central event of history; the Incarnation of the divine Word for the redemption of humanity." -- Benedict XVI, Audience, December 17, 2008 (L'Osservatore Romano, English, December 24, 2008.)

"There are three questions to be asked in respect to any created being: 'Who made it?' "How?" and "Why?" I put forth the answers: 'God,' 'Through his word,' 'Because it is good.'" -- Augustine, City of God, XI, 23.

"What still puzzles the world, and its wise philosophers, and fanciful pagan poets, about the priests and the people of the Catholic Church is that they still behave as if they were messengers." -- G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man. 1925.

I.

When I was casually reading some of the Holy Father's remarks made just before Christmas of this past year, I was struck by the phrase he used of the Nativity. He called it the "central event of history." I underlined the passage, one that is obviously not unfamiliar to Christian thinking. John said in his Prologue, that the "Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us," as if to say that this "central event" joined the reality of God and the reality of man in one being. Benedict added in his Epiphany homily: Christ is likewise "the ultimate destination of history."

I had previously remarked, after reading the Pope's book, Jesus of Nazareth, how diligently the Pope sifted through the critical evidence that purported to deny, in one way or another, that Jesus was not who or what He said that He was, namely the Son of God, born—actually born, born once in this world—at a given time and at a given place. This book, after dealing with whatever evidence is offered that Christ was not God, concluded with a rather straight-forward and obvious fact: That if the Word did become man, if Christ was born at Bethlehem, under Caesar Augustus, as was in fact the case, the world is simply different because of it, however much we are or are not ready to acknowledge the fact. It is one thing to say John Smith existed in the world. It is something of momentous importance to know that Christ, the Son of God, existed in this world.

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