Christmas Day
Reflection
Christmas is a day of hope as well as joy. We do not celebrate Jesus’ birthday remembering something that happened long ago. We celebrate the stupendous fact of the Incarnation. “We can read the history of our universe as the rising up of Divine Love incarnate, which bursts forth in the person of Jesus, who reveals love’s urge toward wholeness through reconciliation, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. Jesus is the love of God incarnate, the wholemaker who shows the way of evolution toward unity in love. In Jesus, God breaks through and points us in a new direction; not one of chance or blindness but one of ever-deepening wholeness in love. In Jesus, God comes to us from the future to be our future. Those who follow Jesus are to become wholemakers, uniting what is scattered, creating a deeper unity in love. Christian life is a commitment to love, to give birth to God in one’s own life and to become midwives of divinity in this evolving cosmos.”( Ilia Delio) God continues to take flesh in us, the men, women and children who form God’s body today. The birth we celebrate is not just a past historical event but a celebration of God’s continual birth in us.
Prayer
Glory to God and on earth peace.
Action
Rejoice in the meaning of the Incarnation in Jesus and in God’s presence in us and all creation.
Suggested Reading
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
John 1:13-14
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing.
Isaiah 9:1-6
Christmas is the feast of love incarnate and born for us in Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis
We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and humankind. They who have faith know this truly; let them rejoice.
Pope Paul VI .
Christmas proclaims the Incarnation, that God is among us, one of us. God is always in the present moment, and all things are possible.
llia Delio
To understand Christmas is to come face-to-face with the incarnation. The very notion that God imbued creation with divinity makes everything we see sacred, every step we take a pilgrimage to the divine.
Joan Chittister
The Body of Christ is the entire universe.
Thomas Berry
It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you … yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.
Mother Teresa
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
Hamilton Wright Mabie
What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.
Agnes M. Pahro
Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.
Janice Maeditere
As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.
Eric Sevareid
One of the things that Christmas reminds us is that Jesus Christ was once a child.
Hark Herald Sarmiento
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Charles Dickens