In our time last night we reflected on the erosion of the human person in contemporary culture. Earlier in the day I read from an essay by Reinhold Hutter, "The Directedness of Reasoning and the Metaphysics of Creation" in Reason and the Reasons of Faith. Hutter argues that "the simultaneous triumph of and despair about reason mirrors late modern society as such: We encounter breathtaking developments in artificial intelligence and biotechnology together with atmospheric epistemological skepticism and ontological nihilism. The very triumph of instrumental rationality seems to invite simultaneously the most radical questioning of reason itself: What drives reason relentlessly and breathlessly from success to success? Is it propelled by something situationed 'behind' its very gaze? If so, is reason's gaze directed in ways it can neither account for nor alter? Moreover, if reason were directed and driven in such a way, what actually would allow us to assume a sovereign -- and, for that matter, first of all, coherent -- self?" (p. 163). The triumph of technological reason has eaten the human person from the inside out. It is here that we find the good news of the Word become incarnate.

In the birth of Jesus Christ, we find God hallowing each human being by become a human being. The One who though rich, became poor -- so poor that there was no room in the inn, but only in an animal feeding trough -- so that we, who are poor, might become rich. In the birth of the poor Jesus we find that the dignity of the human person is not found in status, purchasing power, honor, nor productivity; the dignity of the human being is found in each and every one of else's origin and destiny in God. Christmas reminds us that the significance of the human person is not found in technological reason; nor is reason merely a mask for power -- for true reason has become flesh and dwelt among us.

Perhaps the most important words penned by humans in the late twentieth century is found in paragraph 22 in Gaudium et Spes, "The Church in the Modern World," the last official document from Vatican II: "Only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of the human person take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of him who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. . . . For by his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every man."

These are good words to remind us how God has saved from from cynicism and despair of this present age. May you have a blessed Christmas, all twelve days full!