Last night at the Christmas Eve Mass, we heard the traditional Christmas nativity story, of Jesus born in the humble manger in Bethlehem, of Mary and Jospeh being visited by the shepherds, of the heavenly host singing Glory to God in highest. We always love hearing the story of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve. It makes the birth of Jesus real to us and puts it in its historical context. On Christmas morning, however, we do not hear the nativity story from Luke; instead we hear the beginning of John’s Gospel, a poetic account of Jesus entering the world, with no humble manger, no shepherds, no heavenly host singing the Gloria. Today’s Gospel looks at the deeper spiritual meaning behind Christ’s nativity story. Baby Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem has meaning because he is the word of God, because from the very beginning he was with God and was God. Through the word, God expresses his very self. However, God’s Word does not just communicate something. God’s Word is action. God’s word is a verb rather than a noun, as it produces and creates. Through God’s word, all things came to be.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, is the light of the human race, a light shining in the midst of so much darkness. This has so much meaning for us with Christmas being celebrated in the midst of the dark cold winter, just after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, which took place on December 21st this year. We had a lot of cold overcast weather recently here in Mississippi, but think of how it is in the northern states here in our country, where most of the winter months are dark and dreary and cold. After the winter solstice, however, our days start to gradually get longer as we look forward to the new life that will burst forth when winter ends. We hear today’s Gospel tell us that “what came to be through (Jesus) was life, and this life was the light of the human race. Later, in John’s Gospel, Jesus will tell the crowds: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.” The Gospel that we hear today on Christmas morning tells us that the light of Christ shines in the darkness and that the darkness cannot overpower it. In this way, Jesus is both our light and our hope. Our Gospel Alleluia proclamation proclaims today: “A holy day has dawned upon us….For today a great light has come upon the earth.” The light of Christ shines forth the meaning for the birth of the savior on this Christmas morning.
We are to see the light of Christ shine in the ordinary moments of our lives. For quite a while now, Bishop Kopacz and I have been celebrating Mass here at the Carmelite monastery during the week since Father Juan got sick and was not able to come out there to celebrate Mass. I can tell you that celebrating Mass here with the sisters and with all who come to the Carmelite monastery faithfully for the daily Masses early every morning has been a light shining so brightly. We can see our light shine in our parish in a lot of ways. We have been wanting to expand our outreach to our children and youth. We started a Sunday afternoon youth Mass back in April, which has taken a lot of effort. We have a lot of catechists and helpers helping our children and youth learn about their faith. A lot of people have volunteered and have stepped up to help. And we have volunteers who are helping feed our youth every Sunday evening. We are so grateful for everyone who is helping be a light of Christ by being witnesses of the faith for our children and youth.
As we celebrate the birth of our Savior today and enter the joyful season of Christmas in our Church’s liturgical year, it would be good for us to reflect upon how we see the presence of the light of Christ our lives, especially with all we have gone through this past year as a society. Yes, indeed, the light of Christ is present with us in our own lives and in the world in so many different ways.
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