Cycle C - Year II:

25 December 2015: Solemnity of the Lord's Birth
(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Read  John 1:1-18


The Gift that is Christmas...

It's the big day and we greet everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas 2015! Thank You, Lord for this very special day!

Let us start our reflection with the lyrics of a popular Christmas carol: "Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel."

For indeed today is the "tamang panahon" (to borrow from a popular kalyeserye, translated "right time"). Because "today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord". (Ps 96)

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 (Simbang Gabi). Today let us rejoice and be glad, for the Messiah is born. We are overwhelmed with joy that lights up our darkness.

By his birth, our Lord teaches us the truth that love seeks to be concrete. Because we cannot love in a general sort of way. Rather, true love expresses itself in concrete ways and toward particular persons.

So God's love for us became flesh in Jesus, even as a child -- someone we can see, hear and touch. By this God sets the standard for all love. That is why, in much the same way, for every new child in a family, the husband and wife give a concrete, specific, living, breathing expression of their love for each other.

The Gospel reading (for Mass during the day) is the prologue of the Gospel of John the Evangelist. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." (Jn 1:1-2) Thus, in his simple introduction, John actually summarizes for his audience everything that he wanted to convey about our Lord Jesus. John expresses the divinity of Christ: He was there in the beginning, that is to say, the very beginning before anything else has 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.

Now John the Baptist comes to help people discover and to relish this luminous and consoling presence of the Word of God in our life. The witness of John the Baptist has been very important so much so that many people thought he was the Christ. That is why the "Prologue" clarifies that "John was not the light! He has come to bear witness to the light."

In sum, we reflect on the significance and importance of the Christmas event. The all powerful and might God comes to our world as a "helpless" little infant. And we also believe that every new born child is precious, a gift from God. For God is present in the tiny, vulnerable infant child.

So we return to the manger to reflect that the new born infant Jesus testifies that the prodigal love of the Father in heaven is real, is present has come into our world for the salvation of all men.

As we gather together on this Christmas Day to celebrate the Eucharist around the infant Child of Bethlehem, it my greatest joy to wish my family and friends, and all my readers a "Merry and Blessed 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!