The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Mass Readings

• First Reading Isaiah 52:7-10
• Responsorial Psalm Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6
• Second Reading Hebrews 1:1-6
• Gospel John 1:1-18

Open the Mass Readings on USCCB.org →

Step Into the Story

Isaiah’s runner sprints over the mountains with news for a ruined city. Nebuchadnezzar had burned Jerusalem and its Temple in the summer of 586 B.C.; in 539 B.C. Cyrus the Persian took Babylon and let the exiles go home, and the watchmen on the broken walls shout for joy. Hebrews, probably written before Rome destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D., opens with God, who once spoke through prophets, now speaking through a Son. John’s Gospel, likely the last written, begins where Genesis begins: “In the beginning.”

1. 586 B.C.Babylon burns Jerusalem
2. 539 B.C.Cyrus takes Babylon
3. 40 B.C.Rome names Herod king
4. 27 B.C.Octavian becomes Augustus
5. This week’s scene: 6 to 4 B.C.Christ born in Bethlehem

Come to Bethlehem, most likely between 6 and 4 B.C., while Caesar Augustus rules the world and old Herod still sits in Jerusalem, six miles up the road. Bethlehem is a small hill town of David’s clan, its slopes honeycombed with limestone caves where families stable their animals. Rome was keeping December 25 as Christ’s birthday by 336 A.D., but Scripture names no season, so leave the weather to God.

Stoop into one of those caves, as Christians since St. Justin Martyr, around 155 A.D., have remembered it. Smell the animals, the straw and the smoke of a small lamp. A stone feeding trough has become a cradle. Kneel by it. John tells us who lies there: the Word who made the stars has pitched His tent among us. Look at the Child, and be still.

Encounter the Lord

Stand before the manger and look closely at the Child. John’s Gospel tells you who He is: the Word who was with God in the beginning, through whom everything was made. The hands too small to grasp a finger made the stars.

God did not send a message about Himself. He came Himself. The eternal Son took a human body, a human mind and a human heart so that He could heal what was sick in us, raise what had fallen, and bring life where there was death. John says that to those who accepted Him He gave power to become children of God. Christmas is not only something that happened to Him. It is meant to happen in you.

Go to Mass today. At the words of the Creed, “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man,” kneel, as the Church asks on this day, and thank Him for coming.

Know Your Faith

Why the Word Became Flesh

The Word became flesh to save us by reconciling us with God, so that we might know God’s love, to be our model of holiness, and to make us partakers of the divine nature (CCC 457-460).

True God and True Man

The Church calls “Incarnation” the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature to accomplish our salvation in it (CCC 461). Belief in the true Incarnation is the distinctive sign of Christian faith (CCC 463).

God’s Final Word

In His Son, the Father’s one, perfect Word, God has said everything; there will be no other word than this one (CCC 65). Through all the words of Scripture, God speaks one single Word (CCC 102).

Glory to God in the Highest

The life of the Word made flesh is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels; their song at His birth still resounds in the Church’s “Glory to God in the highest” (CCC 333). Christmas is a holy day of obligation (CCC 2177, 2180).