Be still...be distilled

To distill:  To increase the concentration of, separate, or purify a substance by distillation.

Whether it's liquids, concepts or ideas the final result is concentrated purity and as I quietly enjoy a finely distilled single malt scotch on this Christmas Eve my thoughts go not on the liquor but on the day we've all been looking forward to celebrate: Christmas.​

You see, just over two thousand years ago the blessed Divine and sinful humanity was distilled; purified and concentrated in the Incarnation - the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh; what a mystery! Jesus, God saves; what a love!

Many of our Hispanic community celebrate La Noche Buena. I can truly appreciate that. Oh what a night! God-made-man is born to restore a fallen humanity to its intended divinity. This is you and me in the heart of God, distilled into the moment of a baby's birth.

But the Noche Buena found Mary, pregnant with the Son of God,  and Joseph searching for a place of welcome for the Christ child in the homes and hearts of the very people he loved and came to save. All he was offered was only a humble stable with a manger, a feeding trough, for a bed. But this meagar offering was enough, this was the perfection of Love's distillation process - the first Christmas.

This Christmas, in our time, still requires that the Christ be welcomed in our homes and hearts, that we allow the imperfect love within us to be distilled, purified and concentrated to become the Divine love in which we are created to manifest.

Simple distillation requires that liquid be heated until it changes from liquid into vapor, which is then cooled by passing through a condenser until it becomes a liquid again. The process can be repeated until only the purest extract remains. Consider the heating to be the painful purification that we must experience as the contaminants (sins) are removed and the cooling is the grace that comes through God's forgivness. Be still, be distilled.
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So open your heart to the New Born King and be blessed beyond human imagination. As you celebrate with your loved ones or even quietly alone, remember from whom and from where that love came from.

Merry Christmas. Love always and peace.
Deacon Michel.