tidings of comfort and joy

Something happened in Palestine two thousand years ago.
A child was born who would grow to manhood and make some ridiculous claims.
He claimed to have always existed; to have the power to forgive sins; and to be the creator of the universe.
How utterly preposterous.
Except.
Even today his story has a quality like no other story.
It is alive.
A business man in Kilcullen (he is my Uncle Jim) tells me he saw this 2000 year old Jesus emerge from the sun at Medjugorje in the form of the communion bread which Catholic teaching maintains becomes this same Jesus during the mass.
What is fascinating to me about my Uncle's claim is that Ireland's most successful magazine editor Heather Parsons says she saw precisely the same thing.
No not precisely.
According to Miss Parsons some 30 people who were with her at Medjugorje saw Jesus emerge from the sun as communion bread.
She herself had no knowledge of communion and saw him as a person, whom she instantly recognised as the risen Lord.
Afterwards she converted to Catholicism, a conversion which some believe had very negative consequences for her career at the Irish national broadcaster RTE.
A housewife from Kilcullen (for many years my near neighbour) was on pilgrimage in the Italian village of Lanziano.
She started to cry.
When asked why she was crying she said with surprise: "But can you not see Jesus bleeding?"
These are contemporary accounts from people who are well known in my home town. They actually insist they have seen Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.
They say he lives now.
Can such things be?
What is it about Jesus that fascinates even those who don't believe he's real?
Consider the accounts in the Gospel about his life.
A girl was about to be executed for committing adultery. Her executioners asked Jesus was it right they should kill her by stoning in accordance with the ancient law.
Jesus said: "Let whichever of you has never sinned throw the first stone."
And the crowd dispersed.
No miracle there.
Just words.
Words that speak to us even now two thousand years later.
The greatest atheist among us might read those words and suspect something really happened there.
What Jesus said lives now.
"Turn the other cheek."
"Sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, and come follow me."
"Love one another as I have loved you."
"If you make my words your home, you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
He spoke with authority.
And then there's the miracles.
The gospel witnesses claim Jesus fed 5000 people using only a few bits of bread and a few fish.
They claim he made blind people see.
They claim he cured the most hideous diseases.
They claim he commanded the sea and it obeyed him.
They claim he brought a man called Lazarus back from the dead.
They claim that he cast Satan out of those who were possessed.
They claim in short that Jesus had authority over all creation.
What lunatic claims are these?
But remember, the claims are made by the same witnesses who told us about him saving the girl.
The miracles are as much a part of the story as anything else.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Not the teachings. Not the miracles. Not even his heroic acceptance of death on the cross. Nor yet his resurrection from the dead.
Just his birth.
The decision by God to send his son to live among us so that we might be freed from the rulership of all that oppresses us.
It is Christmas.
Everything you've heard about Jesus is true.