Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, Who came down from Heaven for the salvation of mankind.
Almost immediately after Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin and fell from grace, God promised that He would send a Savior to make things right and restore the relationship between God and man.
The entire Old Testament is filled with stories of God’s chosen people, men and women who were waiting for this Messiah because they they knew they were not able to save themselves.
The New Testament begins with the events leading up to the arrival of this long-awaited Savior, Jesus Christ. In God’s plan for the salvation of the world, He would allow his only-begotten Son to die for our sins.
But before He could suffer and die on the Cross, the Son of God would need to have a body that could be scourged and crucified.
The Second Person of the Trinity, made flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, was born of the Virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem for this reason.
The Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord or Christmas on December 25, a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics.
Celebrating the birth of Christ:
God was born into our human family:
God had come in the flesh:
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, l ‘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.
John 1: 14-18
The Light of God entered into the darkness:
Seeing the salvation of God:
God is so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenceless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendour and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us. This is Christmas: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you”. God has become one of us, so that we can be with him and become like him. As a sign, he chose the Child lying in the manger: this is how God is. This is how we come to know him. And on every child shines something of the splendor of that “today”, of that closeness of God which we ought to love and to which we must yield – it shines on every child, even on those still unborn.
Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 24 December 2005
God asks us to choose between two kings:
Elements of Jesus’ birth anticipate his passion and death:
Christmas in Bethlehem:
Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty Heaven’s glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night: The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal and the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible. The angels and shepherds praise Him and the magi advance with the star, for You are born for us, Little Child, God eternal!
Catechism of the Catholic Church 525
Remembering God’s generosity in the stuff of Christmas:
Finding Christ in the symbols of Christmas:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
The Crucifix is a constant reminder:
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