First Reading

A reading from the Book of Prophet Isaiah (52:7-10)

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, saying to Zion, "Your God is King!" Hark! Yours sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes, the Lord restoring Zion. Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of earth will behold the salvation of our God.

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms of David (98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6)

(R) All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; his right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. (R)

The Lord has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice. He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. (R)

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God. Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; break into song; sing praise. (R)

Sing praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn sing joyfully before the King, the Lord. (R)

Second Reading

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (1:1-6)

Brothers and sisters: In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word. When he had accomplished purification from sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as far superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say: You are my son; this day I have begotten you or again: I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me? And again, when he leads the firstborn into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God worship him.

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (1:1-18)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God. These are they who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. John testified to him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, "The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.""From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.

(P) The Gospel of the Lord.
(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

When we think of Christmas, we naturally think of the Christmas stories found in the gospels of Luke and Matthew, such as the appearance of the angels to Mary and Joseph, Mary's visit to Elizabeth, the birth of Jesus in a stable, the visit of the three magi, the shepherds singing and so on. It's only proper that we read those texts on Christmas Day. But today the Church has left out those familiar elements of the Christmas story and selected the Prologue of John's gospel, (1:1-18) instead, so that we may contemplate the mystery of Christ's birth, understand even better its profound meaning and importance to our lives.

In the prologue, John does not dwell on the circumstances of Jesus' birth but takes us all the way back to the very beginning of creation and describes who Jesus was, what He came to do, and What it means for all of us. He starts out the prologue by echoing the words from the Bible's creation story, "In the beginning" and introduces a Being known as "the Word" being there even before anything was, and this Being was with God and was Himself, "God". And then he calls the Word "He", thus making the Word personal and imaginable which was certainly unacceptable to Hebrew and Greek minds in the days of John. Thus, John presents the Word as someone who is eternal, that is, pre-existing, distinct from God and yet so intimately connected to God sharing the same divine essence and power with God and the image of the invisible and unimaginable God, (vv.1-2). Then recalling God's speech bringing the world into existence in Genesis, John proclaims that "all things came into existence" through the Word. That means that the Word was Creator of all things, (v.3).

John then continues to describe the Word saying, "What came to be through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race", (v.4). Let me paraphrase that for you. At the beginning of creation, God gave life to the first man, Adam, by breathing life into him, Genesis (2:7). That "life" refers to life of the body, the life of the soul, the life of the spirit, the life in the present, life in the future and the eternal life. So, referring to the life that God breathed into His creation, John points out that the Word did not merely possess life, but life itself was found in Him and came through Him. That is to say that the Word was the source of all creation and the source of all life: physical, spiritual, and eternal life. But then man lost the spirit of God or the life of God within him when Adam sinned and was separated from God, Genesis (3:6-8). As a result, the whole human race was cut off from this great privilege of having communion with the source of life, and started to walk in darkness.

Darkness is the opposite of light. Darkness represents nothingness, evil, ignorance, doubt, being lost, and even death, whereas light is associated with good, understanding, knowledge, awareness, enlightenment, God's presence and revelation. So, John proclaims that just as God began creating the world by saying "Let there be light", Genesis (1:3) symbolizing order and life, the Word, the Creator of life, brings new life and light into the world darkened by sin. Moreover, he says that despite the deep and pervasive and persistent darkness and the world's attempt to suppress or reject the light, the light remains undefeated.

John, the evangelist, then proceeds to describe the historical appearance of John the Baptist who had witnessed and borne testimony to the light that came into the world and the response of human beings to the light. He cites two opposite responses that characterized the people's attitude towards the light. One was negative and the other was positive, John (1:12-13). He indicates that the light came into the world, which was His own creation, but the world did not know the light, did not respond to the light as it should have. Similarly, the Israelites, the so called "chosen people" or the people with a special covenant relationship with God in the Old Testament time, who should have known and accepted the light did not give the light the reception He deserved, John (1:10-11). But some received the light and therefore they got the privilege to become God's children. John further clarifies that they did not become God's children by physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

John then draws our attention back to the Word by saying that the Word became "flesh" meaning a real, living, and breathing person, and lived with human beings as a human in every respect: "human body, heart, mind, and will, except for sin", Hebrews (2:17; 4:15), and showed the Father's glory as His only Son, "full of grace and truth", (v.14). In other words, by becoming a human being the Word revealed God and made Him knowable and visible in a unique and essential way. But here, John includes himself as one among the eyewitnesses who had seen His glory. And then once again John returns to the testimony of John the Baptist who had testified about the Word during his ministry with the utmost zeal and earnestness, saying, "The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me, for I am the voice of the one crying in the wilderness and preparing the way for the Lord", Isaiah (40:3).

John continues further saying, "From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ", (v.17).

There are two things to learn here:

This is the first time that John uses the human name, Jesus, and His designation, Christ, or Messiah.
John points out the contrast between the Law through Moses, and grace and truth through Jesus Christ. Before Jesus there was only God's law given through Moses for our own good and benefit. But through Jesus Christ God has manifested the fullness of grace and truth. Here, grace refers to the undeserved favour and spiritual blessing which God has extended to us through Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection. Truth refers to God's Word which sets the standard for eternal life. Finally, John ends the prologue by affirming that only God the Son, who has seen the fullness of God the Father, has also fully revealed Him, thus indicating Jesus' unique and intimate relationship with the Father, a relationship that no other being shares.

What is the message for us?

John does indeed give us a Christmas story even though it lacks the familiar elements of the nativity scenes. The Word John speaks about does refer to Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come into existence when he was born of the Virgin Mary. Rather He existed even before the creation came to be. He is the source of all life. He was full of God's glory and this glory was obvious to the people who witnessed Jesus' teachings and miracles during His earthly ministry. He is the true Son of God, the Messiah, who had come from the Father whose grace and truth shone through His Son. Not only John, but all the disciples had seen Jesus Christ and beheld His glory with their own eyes. They have testified and proclaimed to the world that Jesus is the Word of life and that the Father had sent Him to be the Savior of the world, 1 John (4:14). The testimony of John and the other disciples are trustworthy because they had firsthand experience of hearing, seeing, and touching Jesus. They had seen His glory at the Wedding in Cana, at the transfiguration, at the feeding of the multitude and when He healed the sick, and cast out devils, and during his passion, death and resurrection. Everything Jesus did brought praise and honour to God so that all who beheld His glory and believed in Him received His gift of salvation.
Rejection of Jesus the Word was not restricted to the time of Jesus. Even today people spread false ideas about Jesus and contradict the truth of the incarnation. Much of the world is still in rebellion preferring darkness to light. That is true of all of us at some points in our lives, but we are not in darkness forever. We can, as long as we are alive, turn to Him, repentant and believing, and become His children.
The Word who was with God now dwells with us by becoming man in the person of Jesus, fully human like us, not just to be one of us, but to save us and thus bridging the gap of separation between God and us. God who seemed so far away, so unreachable, so unknowable, beyond us, outside of us, or above us, has become flesh now. He has come to dwell among us to experience our human life. He has come to us so that we may come to understand and believe that God is not remote but near us. In Jesus, we come to know more about God than has ever been known. If God is like Jesus, we need not be afraid because John tells us that He is full of grace and truth. Moreover, He has come to us not because of our good works or righteous things we have done, but because of His amazing love.
Lastly, God became human so that we could understand God better, and so that we could know that God understands us. Therefore, in whatever situation we may find ourselves, in good times or bad, God understands. Jesus, the "true light", understands the darkness that you and I experience because He experienced it himself. He does not ignore the darkness, but shines right in the very midst of it. So, not just today, on this special Christmas day, but every day let us look for the light, let us walk toward the light and let us be a light to others who are still in darkness.

I wish you all a Blessed and Joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(P) Amen.

God Bless You!

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