Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

— Matthew 1:18-25, English Standard Version

Christmas is, in my personal opinion, the single best day of the year. It is the day that I look forward to more than any other, every year, for months on end.

And that is kind of weird, given that, for me, the idea of a holiday like Christmas or Thanksgiving is always better than the reality.

To me, Christmas is time to spend with family and dearest friends. But this year, I’m not with my family. And, over the last few years at least, I had wanted to go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to celebrate the birth of our Lord and King – but I couldn’t, because I was always in a pagan country.

This year, things are a bit different. I am in a true Christian country with people that I really care about, there is snow up to a foot deep on the sidewalks, and there is a church just down the road from where I’m staying. I am away from my family, unfortunately, but there are compensating factors.

But none of these things change the nature and true importance of Christmas.

This day is important above all others because it marks the fulfillment of a promise – one that Our Lord made to all generations of men, past and present and future. He promised that He would deliver Mankind from evil one day – and He did.

The Word became flesh, and lived among us. The Lord came to live among His own Creation through His Son, and that Son died to save each and every one of us.

Note that He did not simply die to save Mankind in a general, abstract sense. He died to save you, personally.

And me, too.

Today is not about the way that Christ died to save you and me, though. It is about the fact that He came among us in the first place. He preached possibly the most radical and offensive set of ideas that the world has ever seen – because they are true, and the truth is offensive and it is radical.

As painful as the truth can be – I have had to find out some extremely painful truths about myself this year, for instance – it is also not something to be feared. It is something to be embraced – because Truth will ultimately set you free.

And that is the true significance of this day. It commemorates the day that the truth came to live among all of us – as the Divine became Man in the midst of blood and animal shit, as our beloved and dread Supreme Dark Lord (PBUH) once said so memorably.

On this day, all of Christendom rejoices as one. (Yes, I am well aware that technically this is not true if you are of an Orthodox persuasion, since they celebrate Christmas in early January. That is true of where I am right now, for instance.) It doesn’t really matter exactly when Christmas happens – whether Christ was really born on December 25th or not is of less than zero relevance to the fact that the day of His birth is the most momentous and powerful of all of the days of the year.

We rejoice and celebrate because the promise of Our Lord is fulfilled. We are reminded once more of the new and eternal Covenant between Him and His Creation. And we are given the most important of all gifts:

Hope.

Make no mistake, my friends, our world is ruled by evil. I have written about this every Christmas day for the past three years, and I write about it once more today. The older I get and the deeper that I explore the Christian faith, the more I am convinced by the Christian argument that the world is ruled in the most devious and subtle ways by a psychopathic serial killer, the Prince of Evil.

Christ’s birth proves that, while that evil and its commander may rule this world, it cannot win in the end. It will not win.

And that is because, as long as there are good men on Earth who stand without fear for what is true and right, willing to fight for our Lord and King, evil cannot defeat us.

It can inflict terrible punishments upon us – torture us, burn us, cripple us, drive us into poverty, take away all that we have, turn our families and our friends against us, and reduce us to broken lumps of mere flesh.

But you and I are far more than our mere physical bodies. We have souls and spirits as well. And while evil can break our bodies and crush our spirits, it cannot take our souls from us. Those belong to Him in Heaven, for He sent His beloved Son to us to fish for those souls.

One day, all will kneel before Christ and proclaim Him to be Lord and King. The choice before us is simple: to do so willingly, or not. That is all there is. But the consequences of that choice are profound.

Make your choice, and take your stand. Either live on your knees for a lie – or be willing to die on your feet for the Truth.

And, though the world outside has gone mad, though the wind carries the howling of daemons to your ears, though the sky turns grey and the Sun does not warm – do not lose hope. Two thousand years ago, the evil that rules this world tried repeatedly to kill the greatest hope for Mankind that we were ever given. It actually did kill Him at one point – and He returned.

Evil failed to conquer the hearts of men – because the truth always wins out in the end.

And so I wish you all a very happy Christmas, my brothers. Peace and goodwill to all of you, every one, who reads this. May the Lord bless you all, no matter where you are, no matter who you celebrate with.

In the name of Our Lord and Father, amen.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

— Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America