Cycle B - Year I:  

25 December 2020: The Nativity of the Lord (Mass during the day)

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Isaiah 52:7-10

Second Reading:   Hebrews 1:1-6

Gospel:  Please Read  John 1:1-18

"The Lord comes to save us!"

TODAY is a great and blessed day as we welcome and proclaim the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! The prophet Isaiah has foretold this event in the old:  "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us; his scepter of power rests upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Messenger of great counsel." (Is 9:5)

So let us rejoice and be glad, for today is the BIG DAY  and we greet each other a Merry and Blessed Christmas 2020!

Let us proclaim to the whole world: "Glory to God in the highest! For this day the Almighty gives His greatest Gift to us all, the Gift of His beloved Son!"

Now the event of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ is the reason for all the preparations in our Advent journey and our nine day novena-Masses or Misa de Aguinaldo.  Indeed, let us rejoice and be glad for  our Messiah is born! We are overwhelmed with joy in the hope that lights up our darkness.

A little trivia:  For Mass during Christmas day, the Gospel reading is taken from the Prologue of the Gospel according to the evangelist John.  The Prologue is the very first thing one sees in opening the Gospel of John.  But in reality it was the last one written, because it is really the final summary of John's Gospel, only that it is placed in the beginning of the Gospel.

The Evangelist John, in this simple introduction, summarizes for his audience everything he wanted to say about Jesus of Nazareth.  John expresses the divinity of Christ.  That means to say, Jesus was there in the very beginning (meaning, 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.

John writes about Jesus as God's creative, life-giving and light-giving word that has come to earth in human form.  For our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed truly Man while remaining truly God.

And so it is only through Jesus Christ that we can behold the glory of God.  Jesus became the partaker of our humanity so that we could also be partakers of His divinity.

Let us then reflect on the significance and importance of the Christmas event in our lives.  Today we continue to proclaim anew the wonder of the Incarnation.  "The Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it.  The Son of God.... worked with human hands; He thought with a human mind.  He acted with a human will, and with a human heart He loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, He was truly been made one of us in all things except sin."  (Gaudium et Spes)

Finally, because of this pandemic let us reflect more deeply on our celebration of Christmas 2020:

We welcome Jesus' birth in the midst of this pandemic. He will come in silence but with more depth, like the very first Christmas, without the glittering lights but only the star of Bethlehem shining brightly in our hearts.

We welcome the Infant Child in the midst of this pandemic, perhaps without the Churches and streets overflowing with  people but with our hearts burning for the Messiah that comes to save humanity.

Yes, we welcome Christmas 2020 in the midst of this pandemic, because our Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

Christmas is the perfect time to celebrate the love of God.  For Jesus is God's perfect Gift, indescribable Gift to humanity.  It is amazing that not only do we receive God's Gift of His Son but we are able to share our Savior with others on  Christmas Day.

As we gather together to celebrate the birth of our Lord, and to celebrate the Eucharist around the Infant Child of Bethlehem, the joy is mine to wish everyone of my family and friends, my readers and followers, a Blessed and Merry Christmas 2020!

HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY, BABY LORD JESUS!  Deliver us from this pandemic, not our will but Your will be done.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!