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As the sun sets across the sky, the light enters through my bedroom window and flickers upon my mirror. I turn towards the mirror surprised at what I see in the mirror. I see a face full of questions, yearning for the love of God, and wishing for the innocence of a child. These are all kept within, in a realm separate from the world, shining only through my reflection in the mirror. On the outside of the mirror lies a different realm where my thoughts and passions are dimmed and forgotten as I carry on throughout my day. It is when I look at my reflection, I am reminded of my thirst and love for God. The veil on my face is released and my love for Him is free to emanate from my soul. So too the birth of the Lord Christ has allowed us to remove the veil from upon our hearts and "we all with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).

Before the Lord Christ's birth, it was as though we held the polished metal used in ancient Corinth, a poor mirror. Our relationship with God was distant and one of fear. In the Book of Exodus, Moses was the only mediator between God and the people. He wore a veil upon his face to cover the illumination radiating from his face after speaking with God, yet when he spoke with the Lord again, he removed the veil. The people could not so much as get a glimpse of the glory of God shining upon the face of Moses.

St Paul called this the age of the "ministry of death" (2 Cor. 3:7) because the Law of Moses, being written only on stones, revealed all that was evil because as St Paul says, "for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law" (Romans 5:13). Therefore, the law imputed condemnation, punishing those that committed such sins. God's love was foreign to most people. However, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ instituted reconciliation between the Lord Christ and His people.

The birth of the Lord Christ allowed us, who were once estranged from God, to be reconciled to Him and the veil from our faces to be removed. He came and took the flesh and has given to us the message of salvation completing it through His death on the cross. St Paul says, "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18-19). The Lord Christ serves as the bridge between God and His people. He has salvaged the distance set apart by the act of original sin. Reconciliation between God and His people is seen through the tearing of the veil of the temple at the time of the Lord Christ's death. The veil separating the Most Holy and the Holy Place represents the partition between God and His people in the Old Testament. Only once a year, a priest was sent to offer incense in the Most Holy Place. Yet, when the Lord Christ died up on the cross, the veil was torn, symbolizing that reconciliation had taken place and that era of fear was over.

As we are reconciled to God through the Lord Christ's birth, we are saved of condemnation and given the chance for eternal life. Jesus Christ came to preach the new "ministry of righteousness" (2 Cor. 3:8) or the ministry of the Spirit. Unlike the ministry of death or the Law, which was passing away and could not lift the fatality of condemnation, the ministry of the Spirit brings to us the message of salvation. St Paul writes, "therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life" (Romans 5:18). Only Jesus Christ Himself was capable of releasing us from the bonds of sin, which Adam dispensed to the human race by his disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, not only were we reconciled to Him by humbling Himself and coming in the flesh, but the Lord Christ's death on the cross was the seal of reconciliation; the gift He gave to completely banish the enmity that lay between God and us.

Consequently, we are now able to hold an amazing new relationship with our Lord. God's mercy and tenderness shines through. He has adopted us as His children, pleading for us to call Him, "Abba Father." As St John writes in his Gospel, "but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). It is only through the Lord Christ that we are able to experience a newfound open and personal relationship with our Lord. His love is presented to us for "now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph. 2:19). He is inviting us each personally to entreat Him and partake of this new relationship.

As a result, the Lord Christ's coming allows us to be renewed in Him. We are given a newfound identity and spirit for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17). His Spirit gives us the freedom from sin and condemnation that had been bestowed upon us in the Old Testament. For we have put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:13). This new humanity has been given to us by the Lord Christ, who banished the separation and enmity that lay between God and us. He did this through His death on the cross for "therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of the Lord Christ, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh" (Heb. 10:20). Although in the Old Testament only the high priest passed through the veil to get to the Most Holy Place and be in His presence, the shedding of the Lord Christ's blood on the cross allows all believers to come into contact with Him. Now there are two ways believers are able to greet God: in prayers directly to Him and by partaking in communion. This is the new and living way. St Paul says to the Corinthians, "therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). We have shed the veil and put on the new life with our Lord that He has implored us to lead.

The crux of the matter is that ONLY through the Lord Christ's coming could the veil of the Old Testament and all its hopelessness be released, allowing us to gaze in the polished mirror and see the Lord Christ's glory reflecting off our faces and renewing our spirit from within. St John Chrysostom writes in his Homily to the Corinthians, "For as soon as we are baptized, the soul burns even more than the sun, being cleansed by the Spirit; and not only do we behold the glory of God, but from it also receive a sort of splendor. Just as if pure silver be turned towards the sun's rays, it will itself also shoot forth rays, not from its own natural property merely but also from the solar luster; so also doth the soul being cleansed and made brighter than silver, receive a ray from the glory of the Spirit, and send it back." For "we all" with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:18).