To the people of the Archdiocese of Mobile

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

I recently read on social media a statement by an unbeliever who wrote: “How can Christians believe that God was a little baby who dirtied his diapers and had to be helplessly fed by one of His creatures? Their God is a weak and puny God.”
Yet in a few days we will celebrate that our God was actually wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid helplessly in a manger, a feeding trough for animals.
We express our belief in the God who in Jesus Christ became flesh, of whom St. Paul wrote: “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:5-7).
God became one of us. As St. Paul wrote: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).
God wished to enter into our human condition. For example, when John was baptizing at the Jordan River, sinners went into the river. We would have understood if Jesus had been on the river banks encouraging sinners to go into the waters. Yet, Jesus Himself went into the river. He was always willing to enter into the sinful, flawed, frail humanity which is ours.
Because God chose to become man, we may be tempted to minimize God, especially at Christmas. After all, the sight of a small baby in a beautiful nativity scene does not readily challenge us, or our concept of right and wrong, or disturb us in our sins. If we so minimize God, we, like the unbeliever, may see God as weak and puny.
Yet this small baby is almighty God. Jesus is 100 percent human and He is 100 percent divine. He took flesh in order to save us on Calvary. The story of the cross, simply stated, is that man turned against God.  Therefore, man must atone for sin. That is just and God is all just.
However, we humans have nothing worthy of God. We have nothing to offer God which is equal to God. The only thing worthy of being offered to God is God. So God, who is also all merciful, in His mercy became man so that man might make the one sacrifice for sin worthy of being offered to God, God Himself. That is what happened on the cross:  God offered God to God. At Mass we celebrate that God became man to save us by the only sacrifice which could atone for our sins.
We are loved that much; we are worth that much. God transforms us from being unworthy into being priceless. He transforms our lives. A banker by a signature can make a blank sheet of paper worth millions. An artist with some paint on a canvas can make it priceless. A sculptor with talented hands can change a rock into a work of art. But Jesus can take a worthless life and change it into something beautiful for now and for all eternity.
Our God is not puny, quite the opposite. He became man out of power and love so that He could approach us and we could approach Him. This is the One who was born n Bethlehem: He grew, He worked as a carpenter, He ate, He drank, He slept, He cried, He suffered, He died. He knows our human struggles. We can take anything to Him. He knows our pains, our struggles, our hopes, our successes, our failures. He knows us and He is with us in all things. We are never alone. The One who came to us wants us to come to Him with our joys and burdens and then for us to bring the love, made manifest at Bethlehem, to those around us. But even though He came to us, only we can decide if we will go to Him.
As Pope Benedict wrote: “God has done everything; he has done the impossible: he was made flesh. His all-powerful love has accomplished something which surpasses all human understanding: The Infinite has become a child, has entered the human family. And yet, this same God cannot enter my heart unless I open the door to him.”
The greatest gift of all is the Savior born to us, God almighty in human flesh. He is the gift we celebrate at Christmas and he comes to us, asks us to receive the gift of God’s love and then to be His gift to others.
I pray that God will bless you and your loved ones and that each of you will have a merry and holy Christmas.

                    Sincerely in the Lord,

                                Thomas J. Rodi
    Archbishop of Mobile