THE GIFT OF THE SON OF GOD


THE SOLEMNITY OF CHRISTMAS

Isa 52:7-10; Ps 98:1-6; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18

The Son of God has been given to Us

Our reflection is on the readings of the Mass of the day. We celebrate the mystery of mysteries today, the human birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We consider the wonder of God’s love for us men, which made him take our human nature and be born like one of us. The plan and purposes of God can never be thwarted by evil. His divine plan for us, from the beginning, is to have us dwell with him eternally. When our sinful choice made it impossible for us to dwell with God, He extended his plan to accommodate the Incarnation of his Son. The Incarnation of the Eternal Word is the greatest proof of God’s love for us, mortal men, whom he made in his image. Love unites the lover to the beloved inseparably. God’s love for us could not let him remain in heaven while we languish and waste in the darkness of sin and evil in this valley of tears. The Eternal Word, through whom the Father made all things, to whom it belongs to redeem the corrupted creatures, adorns our mortal flesh to seek us out and bring us home to the Father. Thus, the thought and contemplation of this loving act of God for our salvation and glory fills our minds with the fire of divine love.

The prophet Isaiah foretold this event as the greatest good news for us men. The Good News is about God returning to his people. “How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation, and tells Zion, ‘Your God is king!’” The good tidings are not only that God is our king, but they are more than that. It is about God’s presence among his people. We have seen God face to face and did not die. “Listen! Your watchmen raise their voices, they shout for joy together, for they see the Lord face to face, as he returns to Zion.” The City of God was desolate and empty of men before, because we abandoned the face of God in pursuit of creatures. God allowed us to experience the emptiness of creatures without their God and creator; to experience death, which is a result of turning our gaze from God to creatures. But he did not totally abandon us, for his divine love for us still followed us to the region of death to save and restore us to his company and communion. “Break into shouts of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord is consoling his people, redeeming Jerusalem.” Jerusalem thus visited is constituted of all the redeemed from all the nations and peoples. According to Isaiah: “The Lord bares his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” Everyone who believes the Good News of the Incarnation of the Son of God sees the salvation of God, sees God face to face in his person.

God has indeed revealed his salvation to all peoples, for he speaks now in the language of all men by taking to himself our common nature. In the singular act of appearing in our human form as a baby, he speaks the language of love, which is common to all peoples and nations. This is unlike his communication to the selected few and tribes, in which he used language and dialects unknown to all men. Hebrews testifies to this fact. “At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything there is.” He is to inherit everything because everything came to be through him. He loved everything that came to be because they shared in his life and goodness. His love would not allow us to be wasted in sin. So, he came to redeem, purify, and restore us to his kingdom of light and truth. Love brings him visibly among us; He came to work on our damaged nature and restore its glory. “He is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature, sustaining the universe by his powerful command; and now that he has destroyed the defilement of sin, he has gone to take his place in heaven at the right hand of divine Majesty.” We must drink deep of his love so lavishly poured out for us in this mystery of his Incarnation, so that we may endure the purification work his presence among us would have on our nature, personally and collectively.

To help us truly grasp the nature of the divine love that brought us our Savior in our sinful human nature, Saint John clearly presents his divine state to us in the Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him. All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower.” The darkness that enveloped our nature when we sinned did not overcome the light of the Eternal Word because He is God from God and Light from Light. Since darkness only indicates the absence of light, darkness is dispersed at the approach of light. So, our sins and the darkness of our evil deeds are dispersed when we admit the presence of the Eternal Word in faith. This is the holiest of our days; ‘Come, you nations, worship the Lord. For today a great light has shone down upon us.’

Let us pray: O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature and still more wonderfully restored it, grant, we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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