One Solitary Life
“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never held an office. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.
“He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
“Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life,”1
It is that life which began in a stable nearly two thousand years ago that we honor during this Christmas season. Mankind remembers the birth and life of Jesus Christ and acknowledges it in many ways, through various customs, and at times for the wrong reasons. But whatever faith man professes, he cannot deny the profound impact which the Savior’s life has had upon the world.
Who can dispute His powerful teachings, to “love one another”2 … “love thy neighbour as thyself”3 …”bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; … “3
If ever there is a time when the world comes closest to following those precepts it is at this season of peace on earth, good will toward men.
1Rephrased from The Real Jesus: “Arise, Sir Knight!” by ,James A. Francis
2New Testament, John 15:12 Ibid., Romans 13:9
3Ibid., Matthew 5:44
December 24, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,258