The incarnation takes place in human history, thus affirming the fundamental goodness of human life and concerns, and sanctifying them even further. The child comes from simple people, from a place that is relatively insignificant, thus underscoring God’s preference for what is ordinary. The body that was offered for our salvation, the body that consecrated us through having been offered up, was the body that grew in the womb of Mary. The extraordinary salvific deed of God was accomplished through his coming into the world as one of us. The obedience that Christ played out through his body fulfilled for us the promises made by God. We stand on the threshold of fulfilment, the fulfilment of an event that has already taken place. We ritually re-enact it so that we never take it for granted, so that we never forget that it is in and through human history that the marvellous deeds of God are accomplished.