Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and we take time off our hectic schedules to sit down and ponder the events that happened 2,000 years ago when the Word of God became flesh and dwelt amongst us. To remember that first Christmas, we open our Bibles to Luke 2:1-14 and read the accounts of the birth of Christ.
“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was Governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the City of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the House and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, he betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them, “Do not be afraid for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the City of David, a savior has been born for you who is the Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you; you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
While the righteous Jews awaited the coming of the Messiah, the first people to receive this message of good tidings were Zechariah when the birth of John the Baptist was prophesied, then to the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the Angel Gabriel announced her being God’s “most favored one” and at the birth of Jesus Christ, to the lowly shepherds where a multitude of angels in chorus, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests.”
God’s favor no doubt rests on the humble, the meek and the poor in Spirit because they don’t rely on their own wisdom, but God’s wisdom. Too often, a humble man is misunderstood as a weak person. But in truth, it takes a certain kind of character for the rich and powerful to be crowned with the virtue of humility. God teaches the ultimate in humility when he sent his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the three persons in the Holy Trinity to be one amongst us… a man who felt the pangs of hunger, pain and human suffering. Only a God who truly loves his creation would sacrifice his only Son to save the human race from its evil ways.
As today is Christmas, we read today’s gospel which you can read in your Bibles in John 1:1-18 called the Prologue.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but God.
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. John testified to him and cried out saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” From his fullness we have all through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.”
In celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to reflect and ponder about our life’s journey here on earth because whether we like it or not….every soul that ever lived on earth still end up departing to the next life, whether it is in heaven seeing the face of God or a life of eternal damnation in hell. This is the bottom line for the entire human race. God gave us Jesus Christ so we could be saved. But remember what St. Augustine once said, “The God who created us without us, cannot save us without us!”
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