It is Christmas, Christmas that lasts forever

AND NOW GOD SAYS TO US what He has already said to the world as a whole
through His grace-filled birth:

I AM there
I AM with you.
I AM your life.
I AM your time.
I AM the gloom of your daily routine. Why will you not bear it?
I weep your tears; pour out yours to me, my child.
I AM your joy. Do not be afraid to be happy,
joy is the standard of living that is really
more suitable than the anxiety and grief
of those who think they have no hope.

I AM the blind alleys of all your paths,
for when you no longer know how to go any farther,
then you have reached me, foolish child, though you are not aware of it.

I AM in your anxiety, for I have shared it by suffering it.
And in doing so, I wasn't even heroic
according to the wisdom of the world.

I AM in the prison of your finiteness,
for my love has made me your prisoner.
When the total of your plans and of your life's experiences
do not balance out evenly,
I AM the unsolved remainder, which makes you so frantic.
This is reality, my love,
that you do not yet understand.

I AM present in your needs.
I have suffered them and
they are now transformed,
but not obliterated from my heart.
This reality, incomprehensible wonder of my almighty love,
I have sheltered safely and completely,
in the cold stable of your world.

I AM there! I no longer go away from this world,
even if you do not see me now.

I AM there. It is Christmas. Light the candles.
They have more right to exist than all the darkness.
It is Christmas, Christmas that lasts forever.

-- Karl Rahner