"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), Mass during the Day - Solemnity
Feast of the Church:
Saints of the Day:
BIRTH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven's glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night:The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal
and the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.
The angels and shepherds praise him
and the magi advance with the star,
For you are born for us,
Little Child, God eternal!
(Kontakion of Romanos the Melodist)
To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this "marvellous exchange":
O marvellous exchange!
Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin.
We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ
who humbled himself to share our humanity.
(LH, 1 January, Antiphon I of Evening Prayer)
Catechism of the Catholic Church - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), Mass during the Day - Solemnity
Book of Isaiah 52:7-10 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all’s well,
proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
telling Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,
shouting in joyful unison.
They see with their own eyes
God coming back to Zion.
Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:
“God has comforted his people!
He’s redeemed Jerusalem!”
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work.
Psalms 98:1 Sing to God a brand-new song.
He’s made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves,
He set things right.
2 God made history with salvation,
He showed the world what he could do.
3 He remembered to love us, a bonus
To his dear family, Israel—indefatigable love.
The whole earth comes to attention.
Look—God’s work of salvation!
4 Shout your praises to God, everybody!
Let loose and sing! Strike up the band!
5 Round up an orchestra to play for God,
Add on a hundred-voice choir.
6 Feature trumpets and big trombones,
Fill the air with praises to King God.
Letter to the Hebrews 1:1-3 Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
The Son Is Higher than Angels
3-6 After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you” or “I’m his Father, he’s my Son”? When he presents his honored Son to the world, he says, “All angels must worship him.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1: The Life-Light
1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.
14 The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
15 John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
16-18 We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), Mass during the Day - Solemnity
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Basil (c.330-379), monk and Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Doctor of the Church
Homily for the Nativity of Christ, 2,6
The birth of the Savior, the death of death
God on earth, God amongst us! It is no longer the God who gives the Law amidst lightning and thunder, at the sound of the trumpet on the mountain wrapped in smoke (Ex 19,18), at the heart of a fearful tempest (Ex 19,18), but he who converses gently and kindly with his brethren in a human body. God in our flesh! This is no longer he who only acts at certain times, as with the prophets, but he who assumes human nature completely and who, through the flesh that is our own, raises all humanity to himself.
How is it that light has come into all of us by means of one alone? In what way is divinity present in the flesh? It is like fire in iron...: while still remaining in place, the fire communicates its own proper ardour to the iron. It is not at all made less by this but it wholly fills the iron to which it communicates itself. In the same way God, the Word who “dwelt among us”, did not go out from himself; the Word made flesh underwent no change; heaven was not deprived of him who contained it and earth welcomed him who remains in heaven…
Enter fully into this mystery: God has come in the flesh to put to death the death concealed within it. Just as drugs cure us once they are assimilated by the body, so the darkness of a house is dispersed once the light comes into it, and so, too, the death that kept us in its power has been destroyed by the coming of our God. As ice formed during the night melts under the heat of the sun’s rays, so death has reigned till the coming of Christ. But when the Sun of justice arose (Mal 3,20), “death was swallowed up in victory” (1Cor 15,54); it could not withstand the presence of the true life... Let us sing glory to God with the shepherds, let us dance together with the angels, “for this day in David's city a Savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2,11)... Let us celebrate the salvation of the world, the birthday of all humanity.
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