Christmas (A)

Is 52:7-10
Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6
Heb 1:1-6
Jn 1:1-18 or Jn 1:1-5, 9-14

Merry Christmas! The Lord has come!

"A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us" (from the responsorial Psalm). Let the joy of "THE LORD HAS COME!" shine from you. But how, when troubles make the world seem dark?

It’s only possible when we keep our eyes on Jesus. Don't focus on what destroys your joy, for nothing can destroy the coming of the Lord. The absence of joy is merely a blank area in your view of what God is doing.

Look at the love that Jesus has for you! Jesus was born not only to save you from the darkness of sin; he was born because he loves you – he loves you! Even if you had never sinned, he would have come into the world so that he could love you on your level, human-to-human.

Sometimes, great things come in surprising packages that do not seem to be great at all. The Eucharist – in the form of a little wafer of bread – does not look like it contains the full presence of Jesus with all of his humanity and his divinity. The baby Jesus – a tiny, helpless child – does not look like the conqueror of evil. But he is! And so is Jesus in the Eucharist; he is here for you.

And you! You might not seem to be a great person, but you contain Jesus. You contain greatness beyond imagining! This greatness does not dwell only in you; it comes out from you in the form of love.

We can know for sure that we have Jesus within us because of the love that we give to others. We know for sure that we can be victorious over evil when Christ's love extends outward to others from within us. It is Christ's love in the world – through us – that defeats the darkness of hardships and troubles.

Jesus comes to us, not to be served, but to serve our needs. He even laid down his life for you!

To be a follower of Jesus means we learn to imitate him. Christians are not here to be served by those who treat us poorly. We are here to serve them, and in this goodness evil is defeated. In this goodness, the greatness of Jesus extends outward from us.

Each time we give love to others, whether they deserve it or not, we give them the gift of Jesus. We are like Mary, giving birth to love himself, making every day a Christmas day.

And when the giving gets tiring, we need to return to the Eucharist to be nourished and healed and restored by Jesus himself, for his love is our Christmas gift from God.

Have a Very Blessed Christmas
in the gifts that the Lord
has given!

On this day the Church focuses especially on the newborn Child, God become human, who embodies for us all the hope and peace we seek. We need no other special saint today to lead us to Christ in the manger, although his mother Mary and Joseph, caring for his foster-Son, help round out the scene.

But if we were to select a patron for today, perhaps it might be appropriate for us to imagine an anonymous shepherd, summoned to the birthplace by a wondrous and even disturbing vision in the night, a summons from an angelic choir, promising peace and goodwill. A shepherd willing to seek out something that might just be too unbelievable to chase after, and yet compelling enough to leave behind the flocks in the field and search for a mystery.

On the day of the Lord’s birth, let’s let an unnamed, “un-celebrity” at the edge of the crowd model for us the way to discover Christ in our own hearts—somewhere between skepticism and wonder, between mystery and faith. And, like Mary and the shepherds, let us treasure that discovery in our hearts.

Comment:

The precise dating in this passage sounds like a textbook on creationism. If we focus on the time frame, however, we miss the point. It lays out the story of a love affair: creation, the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, the rise of Israel under David. It climaxes with the birth of Jesus. From the beginning, some scholars insist, God intended to enter the world as one of us, the beloved people. Praise God!

Published by Jacob Soo
Credits to Amercan Catholic.org