Christmas Day
one
Christmas is the mystery of a "marvelous exchange":
God became something very small, a little baby, so that we could become something very great: sons and daughters of God
As St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas have said, "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."
Pay close attention at Mass before the Eucharistic Prayer, when the priest pours one drop of water into the wine and prays
By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
That is the whole meaning of Christmas: God humbled himself to share in our human nature in order to give us His divine nature and make us sons and daughters of God.
What a wonderful exchange!
two
So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and travelled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem…While they were there the time came for her have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem means ‘House of Bread” and Mary laid him in a manger which is a food trough for feeding animals.
We cannot grasp the full significance of these two facts until we hear the words of Jesus in John 6
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.'
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live forever.'
Jesus gives himself to us as bread at the Last Supper when he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.
three
The whole point of life is to be Reunited to God
· Sin had separated us from Him
· The distance between us was impossible to bridge
Imagine Two Shores separated by a body of water no one could swim
You would need a bridge to cross over
· We need a bridge from God to man
Where are God and man joined together?
· In the Body of Christ
That is why Jesus gives us the Eucharist!
· The Body of Christ is the bridge to cross over to God
John 6:54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life
Through the Incarnation man is reunited to God
· God is man.
· Now man can become God (460)
If Christ is the one who bridged the gap between God and man,
· then for humans to get to God,
· we have to go through Christ.
· There's no other alternative.
four
Every Christmas I am jealous of my friend Jack who lives in Jerusalem and goes to the Cave in Bethlehem where Jesus was born to celebrate Midnight Mass. One year I called him expressing my desire to be with him at the Cave for Christmas. Two which he responded, “Michael, the cave to which Jesus wants to come is your soul. Receive Jesus there in the Eucharist. Adore Jesus there as did the Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi. You desire to be in Bethlehem while you take for granted and overlook Jesus who wants to come into the cave of your soul in the Eucharist. Go and meet Him and adore Him there! It is the same Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
five
In the Diary of Divine Mercy 1385 St Faustina writes After Communion today, Jesus told me how much He desires to come to human hearts. “I desire to unite Myself with human souls; My great delight is to unite Myself with souls. Know, My daughter, that when I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay any attention to Me; they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things. Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognize Love! They treat Me as a dead object. I answered Jesus, “O Treasure of my heart, the only object of my love and entire delight of my soul, I want to adore You in my heart as You are adored on the throne of Your eternal glory. My love wants to make up to You at least in part for the coldness of so great a number of souls. Jesus, behold my heart which is for You a dwelling place to which no one else has entry. You alone repose in it as in a beautiful garden.
Alternate 5 Christmas is about joy. Joy is the emotion or desire that should prompt us to rest or delight in the possession of some good thing. We possess the Supreme Good – God Himself. We possess him in our soul by baptism and we possess Him Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist. There are 12 days of Christmas – not just one. The best way to celebrate or delight in Christmas is to take time each of these 12 days to stop and think about the astonishing reality that you and I possess God now and forever.