‘The Christmas story is the ultimate riposte to [the atheist’s] … scepticism’

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”.
Isaiah 9:6

Christmas gives the Catholic Church an unparalleled opportunity to remind the contemporary world of God’s loving search for man. From the dawn of human history, humanity has searched for God.

As the Catechism observes: “In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour,” such that “one may well call man a religious being”.

This religious impulse accounts for the universal experience of religion among the world’s cultures at all times and in all places. Some, however, would suggest that humanity’s quest for God goes unreciprocated.

The renowned atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell, for example, was once asked what he would say if he found himself standing before God on the Judgement Day and God asked him, “Why didn’t you believe in me?” Russell replied, “I would say, ‘Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!’”

The Christmas story is the ultimate riposte to such scepticism. After centuries of prophetic foreshadowing from Old Testament figures such as Isaiah, the greatest revelation of God into human history is made manifest: Jesus Christ. God Incarnate. Son of Mary. Born in Bethlehem. “God comes to meet man,” states the Catechism.

This is the fulfilment of God’s gradually unfolding yet ultimately overwhelming response to the religious impulse that we all have within us. God searches for man. Man searches for God. For it is only in God, says the Catechism, that man will “find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” both in the here-and-now and in the here-after.

I therefore wish both the staff and readers of The Tablet a very happy and holy Christmas.

With every blessing,

+ Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and  Edinburgh