The Nativity Scene and St. Francis of AssisiThe Roman Missal presents three prefaces for the Christmas season, not linked to specific days, but to be used throughout this liturgical season. The first one already from its title -De Christo luce- focuses the believer's attention on the light that is Christ.
This is the text of the first Christmas Preface. In the following days we will see the other two:
In the mystery of the Word made flesh the new light of your splendor has appeared to the eyes of our mind, for by visibly knowing God through him we are won to the love of invisible realities.
"Quia per incarnáti Verbi mystérium nova mentis nostræ óculis lux tuæ claritátis infúlsit: ut, dum visibíliter Deum cognóscimus, per hunc in invisibílium amórem rapiámur."
First Christmas Preface, in Spanish and in Latin
The theme of light is very present in the formularies for the celebration of Christmas. To cite just a few examples, in the formular for the Mass of Christmas Eve, the collect prayer opens with a reference to the true light ("veri luminis illustratione"); the same is true of the collect prayer for the Mass of the dawn, in which the new light of the Incarnate Word is mentioned.
The first reading of the evening Mass cites the oracle of IsaiahThe people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; a light has shone on those who dwell in the land of darkness" (Is 9:1); as well as the responsorial psalm of the Mass of the Dawn, which is taken from Ps 96 (97): "A light has dawned for the righteous".
A new light, says the Preface, because it has never been seen before: it is the true light, that which enlightens every man and which has finally come into the world (cf. Jn 1:9); it is new, moreover, because it is the bearer of newness: only in the incarnate Word is man definitively renewed; the one who is born is the new Man, whose nature is from that moment totally renewed, because he has assumed the divine nature.
It all begins at the Lord's Christmas
The reference to light projects us directly to the Easter Vigil, with its skylight, the rite by which the light of Christ ("Lumen Christi") pierces the darkness of the world and opens to men the way of salvation.
It all begins here, in this Christmas of the Lord, which manifests the claritas of God ("nova lux tuae claritatis"). This is not a mere brightness or radiance, but a true reference to the divinity of Christ: in effect, claritas is a translation of the Greek doxa, itself a translation of the Hebrew kabod, which indicates the glory of God manifested in a particular way in the events of salvation. It is thus affirmed that on this most holy night the very glory of the Most High was manifested: Jesus Christ is "the radiance of his glory ("dóxes autoû") and the imprint of his substance" (Heb 1:3).
Visible manifestation of God
Such greatness has shone before the eyes of our mind ("mentis nostræ oculis...infúlsit") by the mystery of the Incarnate Word ("per incarnáti Verbi mystérium"). The locution "oculis mentis" indicates that the mystery of the Word can only be known in its depths through faith; in fact, it indicates the eyes of the soul and opens to the play of cross-references of the second part of the preface embolism, all played on the antithetical visible-invisible parallelism.
In fact, the mystery of the incarnate Word is the visible manifestation of the God ("He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9): in Christ and thanks to Christ we have the definitive revelation of the very essence of God. And it is precisely by knowing God through Jesus Christ that we can be enraptured by the love of invisible realities, that is, of God himself. This expresses the power of revelation, which is not mere intellectual knowledge, but a relationship with a Person who became flesh, who became a child, so that we might know and love him.
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome)
