Homily on the Christmas mass during the day
December 25, 2023
Friends,
On this holiest day when we remember and celebrate how God’s love took human form in the baby Jesus, the Psalmist continues with great wonder and joy to immerse us in the mood and meaning of the Christmas feast as a time of contemplation on God’s love and how much his love is all that we need to live and share with one another. Thus, we should break with joyful songs because, by becoming one of us, the Lord has revealed his saving love and power. Prophet Isaiah also joins us with the Psalmist in raising a cry of joy as we behold the salvation brought by the wonderful union between the divine and human, a language God has chosen to reveal his love and re-creative force, which even is worshipped by all the angels–“let all the angels of God worship him” (Second reading Heb 1:6). With these words from the second reading, we can truly say that the entire creation has been united in a convergent movement of love to a single and key reality; existence. Thus, at this time of Christmas, we are celebrating our central reality of existence: God himself, who loves us and has become one of us. This is a simple and easy language to know and understand God and one another. Love is life; it is a life-giving force. John, in today’s Gospel, pulls out this thread clearly when he says, “What came to be through him was life, and life was the light of the human race.” With this affirmation, as we celebrate this feast of our life being restored to the original God’s plan since his creation, let us accept him who has made this possible and has given us the power to become children of God (Gospel John 1: 16-18) through his birth.
In conclusion, one who has seen God is, therefore, drawing us through today’s celebration to live our lives in communion with him and his creation to joyfully shine his light of love and peace– life to our world marked with despair, death, and sadness.
