Cycle B - Year I:  

25 December 2014: Solemnity of the Lord's Birth 

(Liturgical color: White)

John 1:1-18

The Gift of Christmas!

A blessed Christmas to us all!

In our generation Christmas is easily associated with gifts. Indeed, Christmas is God's greatest gift to mankind, the gift of His beloved Son.

The event of the birth of our Lord Jesus is the reason for all the preparations during our Advent pilgrimage, and the nine-day novena Masses or Misa de Aguinaldo or Simbang Gabi. Today let us rejoice and be glad, for the Messiah is born. We are overwhelmed with joy that lights up our darkness.

The Gospel reading is the prologue of the Gospel of John. In his simple introduction, John actually summarizes for his audience everything that he wanted to convey about Jesus of Nazareth. John expresses the divinity of Christ: He was there in the beginning (that is to say, the beginning before anything else has been begun); in that time Jesus was with God, and He was God; nothing was made without Him because it was all created through Him; in Him is life for all men.

After talking about Christ's divinity, John proceeds to tell us about Christ's mission on earth. The Word became flesh to make it possible for us to become children of God. Because Jesus is the only way that we can inherit God's kingdom.

We reflect on the significance and importance of the Christmas event. The all

powerful and mighty God comes to our world as a "helpless" little Infant. And we realize that every new born child is precious, a gift from God. And God is present in the tiny, vulnerable infant.

The Son of God assumed our human nature so that in it we can be saved. Born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.

As we gather together on this Christmas day to celebrate the Eucharist around the Infant Child of Bethlehem, it is my joy to wish everyone of my family and friends, and my readers, a "Blessed and Merry Christmas!"

Happy, Happy Birthday, my Lord Jesus!

A blessed Christmas to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!