The Nativity of the Lord: 2019

Mass During the Day Lectionary: 16

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory as of the Father's only Son,

full of grace and truth.

In the past few years the news media have been awash in "alternate facts" and we have come to realize facts are not what they used to be. They were supposed to be snippets of truth, small, hard pieces of reality. They were discovered, identified, and isolated by science; they were truths not revealed by God. They could be used to build hypotheses which, after sufficient testing and much experience, could be accepted as useful theories.
A theory was useful if it successfully explained what happened and predicted what would happen. When I open my hand the pen falls to the floor. I know why it happened: masses curve space and objects moving through space collide with each other. I predicted it; it happened; the theory of gravity is both reliable and useful. I can assume it's true. 

I use these theories and facts all the time, without much reference to God. I turn the ignition key and the engine starts. I didn't invoke God to make it work; it happened because the science is reliable and true. 

But in the twentieth century scientists discovered facts that proved contrary theories. Is light a particle or a ray? It can't be both but it acts like both, with no theory except "relativity" to explain it.
Facts are really man-made inventions; the word itself comes from the Latin facere, meaning "to make." As in manufacture and facsimile.  Facts are components of theories which help explain reality, but theories can become rickety as facts accumulate. When enough fail to fit the prevailing theory, the theory collapses. It must be replaced by another which will successfully explain what did happen and predict what will happen. 

Learning that facts are "man made" leads to certain inevitable questions: Who are the scientists? Who sponsored the research? What questions did they ask? What answers did they expect? Why did they ask that question? What biases did they assume? Why do their new facts matter?

More importantly, with the advent of "alternative facts", we realize that All the facts in the world don't add up to the Truth. Sometimes they can be used to contradict the truth, as when we tell "white lies" which are ostensibly true but intentionally misleading. Losing faith in facts and those who create them, some people doubt there is any truth. Perhaps truth is only one person's opinion, contradicted by the opinions of other people. Perhaps, in the absence of facts, there is only power, and those who survive are the most powerful.

On Christmas Day Christians celebrate the Truth made Flesh who lives among us. He is not a fact though his birth, death, and impact are historical facts. He is the Word of God who abides forever, a word pronounced in many languages and defined in none; a Word which governs the Church without being governed by the Church.

On Christmas Day, as we again recite the Nicene Creed, Christians declare our faith in "the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." Historically we know that Gospel Truth finds both welcome and rejection. It is popular and despised. The Gospel can build civilizations, cultures, and societies as people embrace the Truth; and when they stray into deception, the Gospel abandons them to their fate. They are left to cry Lord, Lord in the night, outside the City walls.

Today, we celebrate the Birth of the Savior who is Christ the Lord and we must admit that facts do not save us. We can bludgeon our opponents with facts and they'll laugh at us. Or we can live the truth in love, respectfully and with God's own patience, and watch as Salvation History unfolds before us. We cannot control the outcome; clearly no mortal controls our political, economic morass.

Rather, we praise God that our Savior is born, and our eyes have seen the glory of his coming.