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:
The birth of Jesus is a historical fact:
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:
The birth of the Messiah! It is the central event in the history of humanity. The whole human race was awaiting it with a vague presentiment; the Chosen People awaited with explicit awareness. A privileged witness of this expectation, throughout the entire liturgical season of Advent and also at this solemn vigil, is the Prophet Isaiah who, from the distant centuries directs his inspired gaze to this single, future night at Bethlehem. Although he lived many centuries earlier, he speaks of this event and its mystery as if he were an eyewitness of it: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given” – “Puer natus est nobis, Filius datus est nobis”. Such is the historical event imbued with mystery: a tender child is born, fully human but at the same time the only-begotten Son of the Father. He is the Son, not made but eternally begotten, the Son of one being with the Father. “God from God, light from light, true God from true God”. He is the Word, “through whom all things were made”. We shall soon proclaim these truths in the Creed and add: “For us men and for our salvation He came down from Heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man”. Professing our faith together with the whole Church, this night too we shall acknowledge the amazing grace which the Lord’s mercy bestows on us.
Pope John Paul II, Homily, 24 December 1997
God asks us to choose between two kings:
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
Grateful for jokes:
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