Good Friday was followed by Easter Day, by the joy that cometh in the morning (2), when Our Lord’s risen life began and he passed from this natural world into that supernatural world of God which is the background of life here and the essence of eternal life hereafter.  And it is as the Risen Lord that the holy Child of Bethlehem now enters one’s heart and shares one’s life – or rather enters one’s heart so we can share his life.

For it is not so much that he comes down to us at our natural level as that he raises us up to his supernatural level.  This means that, as the Crucifixion was followed by the Resurrection, so our repentance, if it is to blossom and bear fruit, must be followed by newness of life.  The old life of self and its sins must go and a God-centred and Christ-like life take its place.

That is a theme to which St Paul often turns:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (RSV, Colossians 3:1).

And again:

“…if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (RSV, 2 Corinthians 5:17).