The Christmas Day reading is always the profound prologue to the Gospel of John. It is as if - after the excitement of Christmas Eve, with the angels singing and the shepherds hurrying to see the child God - the Church wants us to pause and consider the depth of the mystery.
Through the testimony of St. John, we are invited to meditate on what is literally the most extraordinary event in all of history: the almighty God, the eternal Word with the Father, who lowers himself to assume the human condition.
He, the Creator, becomes - in his human nature - a creature. He, who is light in Himself - "God of God, light of light"He, who is the full revelation of the Father, accepts not to be known, ignored by all, except by some poor shepherds and exotic foreigners. He, who is the full revelation of the Father, accepts not to be known, ignored by all in his humble birth, except for a few poor shepherds and exotic foreigners. The loving Creator accepts to be rejected by his creatures - most of them are indifferent, Herod persecutes him - and he is rejected by all. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
As the Fathers of the Church put it in bold language: God became man so that we might become God. That is, so that we might participate in the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet 1:4). In the divine Son made man we are divinized, made like God.
The child lying in the manger offers us his own divinity, of which we participate through grace, prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, works of love and his reception in the Eucharist. How many mothers, adoring their child, say to him, "I would eat you!", words that only express their desire for union with their child. What for them is only a desire, for us becomes a reality in the Eucharist. The child God whom we contemplate with loving awe enters into us in the host and, in a mystical way, we enter into him. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.(eucharistically, in us) and we have beheld his glory: glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth."But they were only reflections of glory, and even veiled glory, as when the angels celebrated the birth of Christ, or at the Transfiguration, or at the Resurrection. Through these reflections we yearn for the full vision, when "we will see God as He is"(1 Jn 3:2). Jesus, "God, the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the one who has made him known.". It is knowledge through faith, like light through the cloud. The joy of Christmas impels us to seek that full vision of God in the afterlife. If Christmas is a time of joy, despite all the ways we find to spoil it, how infinitely wonderful must be the eternal joy of heaven.
Homily on the Christmas Readings
Priest Luis Herrera Campo offers his nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
