Deciphering ChristmasThe entire text of this Christmas Preface is interwoven with antithetical parallels. They show the relationship between God and man, between time and eternity, between that which has been ruined by sin and the restoration brought about by the Son in the mystery of the God made man.
"Qui, in huius venerándi festivitáte mystérii, invisíbilis in suis, visíbilis in nostris appáruit, et ante témpora génitus esse coepit in témpore; ut, in se érigens cuncta deiécta, in íntegrum restitúeret univérsa, et hóminem pérditum ad cæléstia regna revocáret".
In the holy mystery we celebrate today, He, the invisible Word, appeared visibly in our flesh to take upon Himself all creation and raise it from its fall. Generated before the ages He began to exist in time, to restore the universe according to your plan, O Father, and to restore to you the scattered humanity.
Christmas Preface II
The Preface opens with a look at the celebration of the mystery of Christmas. One notices immediately the relationship between Liturgy and Mystery that is woven into every liturgical manifestation. In fact, the verbs in the first section of the text are all in the perfect tense ("apparuit...coepit"), but the first reference is to the present solemnity ("festivitate"). The relationship between the fact of the past - the birth of Christ in the flesh - and the liturgical celebration of that fact, which precisely by means of the rite makes present here and now what has been given once and for all, is thus manifested.
The liturgical hodie overcomes the barriers of time in Christ. It allows even us, who are not contemporaries of Jesus, to contemplate the Mystery so that we may adore it ("huius venerandi mysterii").
History of salvation and of our redemption
This Mystery is then described through two very dense and rich parallels: God, who is essentially invisible because He is pure spirit ("invisibilis in suis"), from the Incarnation ("in nostris") became visible; the Sonbegotten in eternity, began to exist in time.
We can already see here the presence in the watermark of the text from Col 1:15-20Pauline hymn that summarizes the history of salvation and our redemption.
Indeed, the purpose of the Incarnation, as the text of the Preface shows, is to restore all things in their integrity ("in integrum restituiret universa"). Almost as if to show the work of renewal of the whole cosmos carried out by the Redeemer. And within this work that involves the universe, a privileged place is occupied by the human being fallen because of sin ("hominem perditum"), whom Christ calls to share once again in the heavenly dwellings ("ad caelestia regna revocaret").
The divine redeems all that is human
This whole marvelous process of salvation takes place thanks to the fact that the Son raises up in his person all that had collapsed ("erigens cuncta deiecta"). The image is precisely that of the one who rebuilds the ruins, and that in itself underlines that the divine nature assumes all that is human and redeems it.
The reason for thanksgiving in this Christmas Preface is therefore Redemption, both in the cosmic and human aspects.
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome)
Deciphering Christmas
