For to You Is Born This Day a Savior, Christ the Lord
Introduction: May
your celebration of the Birth of the Lord Jesus be an enlightening and
enriching time for you and for all those with whom you celebrate.
We give gifts on Christmas; we have to realize that we are
being gifted as a reminder and a sign of the greatest gift we have received –
the Incarnation of the Son of GOD. May it become a way for us to have each
present point to what we were celebrating.
Words cannot fully capture what the Word becoming Flesh
means for us. GOD is truly Emmanuel (“GOD with us”) in and through Jesus. Jesus
is “GOD saving.” He is the “Anointed One” (Messiah, Christ). We truly have
become daughters and sons of GOD because GOD the Son has come to share our
humanity with us and allow us to be gifted with divine life.
For Mass at Midnight, our First Reading speaks about a Son
given to us Who brings light to those in darkness, joy to those in sorrow. This
Child will be given the Reign of GOD and be called by the titles
Wonder-Counselor, GOD-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. (This passage is
the source of some of the words of a song in Handel’s Messiah.) The Reign that
this Son will establish will be marked with justice and peace. St. Paul, in his
letter to Titus, reminds us that Jesus is the revelation of GOD’s grace to all
people. The glory of GOD has come in and through the Savior of the world.
First Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7: ‘A son is given to us.’
Commentary: This
prophecy of Isaiah promises a joyful reversal after the threats of the Assyrian
invasion of Jerusalem in 732BC. The devastating Assyrian armies had plundered
the northern kingdom of Israel and seemed certain to repeat this exploit on
Judah and Jerusalem in the south. Amazingly, they turned away. At the same time
Isaiah promises a son of the royal line of David, who will bring peace with
justice and righteousness. This son is described in exaggerated terms which we
Christians see to be fulfilled only in Jesus, the Second David, the true Son of
God. He will be Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace, each pair of titles having a marvellous, transcendent air. Such promises
sustained the hopes of the nation through the grim period of the Exile and the
succession of foreign rulers which dominated the return from Exile. As the
hated Roman occupation became more burdensome, the hopes of delivery through
this promised heir of David became more and more vivid in Israel, as we see
from the Jewish literature of the years immediately preceding the birth of
Jesus. It is in terms of the heir to David and Son of God that Mary received
the message of the angel at the Annunciation.
Responsorial Psalm 96:1-2a. 2b-3. 11-12a. 12b-13b. 13cd.
Psalm 96 is a universal hymn of praise that summons all
peoples to “sing a new song” to the Lord, acknowledging Him as the source of
salvation and glory. The psalm moves from personal praise to public
proclamation, urging the faithful to declare God’s marvelous deeds among the
nations and to recognize His sovereign kingship over the whole earth. Creation
itself is personified as rejoicing—heaven, earth, sea, and fields exult—because
the Lord’s reign brings harmony, order, and life. The closing note emphasizes
hope and accountability: the Lord comes to judge the world not with
arbitrariness, but with justice, righteousness, and faithfulness, assuring both
salvation for the faithful and restoration for creation.
Second Reading: Titus 2:11-14: ‘The grace of God has
appeared for all people.’
Commentary: The
author of the letter sees God primarily as the Saviour, who wishes all people
to be saved through Christ, also our Saviour. In the Old Testament God is often
called the Saviour of his people, but in the letters to Timothy and Titus this
title is with equal frequency transferred to Jesus our Saviour, perhaps as a
divine title. This reading is chosen to celebrate Christmas because it speaks
twice of the appearing or manifestation (the same word in Greek) of our
Saviour, and the Church Fathers often consider the moment of this Appearing at
the Incarnation rather than the Resurrection to be the moment of salvation. It
is celebrated as the moment when God became man so that man might be raised to
the divine. Accordingly, the Eastern Church celebrates rather the Epiphany (or
Appearing) of the Lord. However the letter stresses that we must respond to
this Appearing of the grace of God by preparing for the final Appearing. Thus
the classic formulation speaks of the threefold coming of Christ: in history
(at Bethlehem), in mystery (coming into our hearts) and in majesty (at the
final coming in glory).
Gospel: Luke 2:1-14:‘Unto you is born this day a
Saviour.’
Commentary: Luke’s
account of the birth of Jesus stresses especially the poverty of the family:
Christ comes to the poor and is greeted by the poor. Mary and Joseph are
displaced persons, and can find no decent place for the baby to be born. There
is no space in the living-quarters and he has to be put in a feeding-trough
among the animals. He is greeted not by the rich presents of the magnificent
wise men from the East, but by impoverished hired shepherds, guarding flocks in
the winter night. He is born to be the patron of the homeless and of displaced
persons.
But Jesus is also the fulfilment of the hopes of the Old
Testament. The families both of John the Baptist and of Jesus are eminently
faithful to the prescriptions of the Law, waiting for the salvation promised to
Israel. In the Temple Jesus will be greeted by Simeon and Anna, the
representatives of fidelity to the Old Law. The birth of Jesus at Bethlehem
shows that he is born as the heir to the promises to David, that God would
build David a house of everlasting sovereignty, whose king would be the son of
God and would call God his Father.
Reflection: Why was
the Messiah, the long promised Savior from the royal house of David, born in obscurity
and lowliness in a little town of Bethlehem? In the Roman empire censuses were taken
every fourteen years for assessing taxation and ascertaining who were eligible for
compulsory military service. Since Mary and Joseph were both from the line of King
David, they had to travel eighty miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the hometown
of David and his ancestors. This was a most inconvenient time and a physical ordeal
for Mary since her baby was due any day now! And as luck would have it, Bethlehem
was overcrowded. They had to settle for the most primitive of accommodations - an
cave in the hillside which was used as a stall for animals.
Why would the Messiah choose to
be born in such pitiable conditions and in total obscurity? God's ways are different from our ways. He, the Most
Exalted One, condescends for the sake of the lowly and the oppressed. The Lord descended
not in pomp and majesty befitting a King, but in meekness and lowliness to show
us the way of perfect love. The only room used as a throne for Jesus was the cross
he came to bear for our sins. In Jesus lowly birth we see the foreshadowing of the
greatest sacrifice God would make for our sake when his only begotten Son willingly
embraced the crown of thorns and death on the cross for our salvation.
Jesus' birth in Bethlehem fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah
would descend from David and be born in David's city, Bethlehem (Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-2;
Micah 5:2-4). Ambrose, the 4th century bishop of Milan, in his commentary on this
passage from Luke explains why Christ became a humble child for our sake.
He was a baby and a child,
so that you may be a perfect human.
He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that you may be freed from the snares
of death. He was in a manger, so that you may be in the altar. He was on earth that
you may be in the stars. He had no other place in the inn, so that you may have
many mansions in the heavens. "He, being rich, became poor for your sakes,
that through his poverty you might be rich." Therefore his poverty is our inheritance,
and the Lord's weakness is our virtue. He chose to lack for himself, that he may
abound for all. The sobs of that appalling infancy cleanse me, those tears wash
away my sins. Therefore, Lord Jesus, I owe more to your sufferings because I was
redeemed than I do to works for which I was created... You see that he is in swaddling
clothes. You do not see that he is in heaven. You hear the cries of an infant, but
you do not hear the lowing of an ox recognizing its Master, for the ox knows his
Owner and the donkey his Master' crib. [Exposition of the Gospel of Luke]
Why did the angels announce the
birth of the new-born King of Israel to shepherds, rather than to the
Jewish populace at large, or to the leaders of Israel? God chose to come in lowliness
to show his loving-kindness and power to those who were humble of heart and ready
to receive him. Gregory the Great in his Christmas sermon explains the significance
of the angels hymn of glory and message to the shepherds:
Before the Redeemer was born in the flesh, there was discord
between us and the angels, from whose brightness and holy perfection we were separated,
in punishment first of original sin and then because of our daily offenses. Because
through sin we had become strangers to God, the angels as God's subjects cut us
off from their fellowship. But since we have now acknowledged our King, the angels
receive us as fellow citizens. Because the King of heaven has taken unto himself
the flesh of our earth, the angels from their heavenly heights no longer look down
upon our infirmity. Now they are at peace with us, putting away the remembrance
of the ancient discord. Now they honor us as friends, whom before they considered
to be weak and despised. [Homilies on the Gospels 8.2.60]
We also join with the angelic choirs of heaven when we glorify
God and give him thanks for the gift of his Son who became our redeemer.
Why was it necessary that God's
only begotten Son, the Word of God, become flesh (cf. John 1)? The Word
became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God our Father. God
loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). The
Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14). The Word appeared
to take away sins (1 John 3:5). The Word became flesh that we might know and
experience the love of God. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God
sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him (1 John 4:9).
For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
There is a great paradox in the mystery of the Incarnation, the
Son of God taking on human flesh that we might be clothed in his divinity. Scripture
says "he became poor that we might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9) -
rich not in material things which pass away, but rich in the things that last -
eternal life and happiness with the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The
Incarnation is the mystery of this wonderful exchange: "O marvelous 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." (Antiphon I
of Evening Prayer for January 1st)
Lord our God, with the birth of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
your glory breaks on the world. As we celebrate his first coming, give us a foretaste
of the joy that you will grant us when the fullness of his glory has filled the
earth.
Daily Quote from the Early Church
Fathers: All great feasts have
their origin in Jesus' nativity, by John Chrysostom, 547-407 A.D.
"A feast day is about to arrive, and it is the most
holy and awesome of all feasts. It would be no mistake to call it the chief and
mother of all holy days. What feast is that? It is the day of Christ's birth in
the flesh. It is from this day that the feasts of the Theophany, the sacred
Pasch [Passover], the Ascension and Pentecost had their source and foundation.
Had Christ not been born in the flesh, he would not have been baptized, which
is the theophany or manifestation. Nor would he have been crucified, which is
the Pasch [Passover]. Nor would he have sent down the Spirit, which is
Pentecost. Therefore, just as different rivers arise from a single source,
these other feasts have their beginnings in the birth of Christ." (excerpt
from ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 6.23-24)
Christmas presence: “The
Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” —John 1:14
God, the Eternal Word, Who spoke and the earth was made (Ps
33:6, 9), came as an Infant to earth (Lk 2:7). In a sense, God lost His voice.
The Infant Jesus, the Word, did not give sermons. And if He did, who would have
been able to hear Him? For several decades, He was hidden: first, in a humble
manger, then in Egypt, then in lowly Nazareth.
Today’s Scriptures reveal that God the Father has now spoken
to us through His Son (Heb 1:2). He is present inside our churches in a
tabernacle as the Bread of Life (Jn 6:35). In fact, the Greek word often
translated as “dwelt among us” literally means “the Word tabernacled among us”
(see Jn 1:14).
When this reflection was written, there were ongoing wars in
Ukraine and Gaza, abortion ran rampant, sexual confusion and perversion went
unchecked, and Satan seemingly was having his way in a hurting, divided world.
One might wonder where God is in all this chaos. The answer is that Jesus is
present here, hidden yet able to be found. Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us (see
Mt 1:23). Seek Him. He will let you find Him (Jer 29:12-13).
Prayer: Father, You have chosen to speak to us through
Your Son (Heb 1:2). May I always desire to listen to Him far more than I want
to receive Christmas presents. “All the ends of the earth will behold the
salvation of our God.” —Is 52:10. “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
break into song, sing praise” (Ps 98:4).
The personal action for today:
As I celebrate Christmas, how do I bring my appreciation of the Incarnation of
Word/Light/Life (Logos/Phos/Zoe) to others? Am I giving (and receiving) gifts
in the name of the Lord Jesus? Can people experience the Love (Agape) and Light
(Phos) of Jesus as I exchange presents and greet people on this holy day and
during this holy season? How can I extend a greeting for Blessed Holy-days
beyond Christmas and into the whole year?