December 25, 2024: THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

Readings: MASS DURING THE NIGHT: Isaiah 9: 1-6 / Psalm 96: 1-2. 2-3. 11-12. 13 / Titus 2: 11-14 / Luke 2: 1-14. MASS AT DAWN: Isaiah 62: 11-12 / Psalm 97: 1. 6. 11-12 / Titus 3: 4-7 / Luke 2: 15-20. MASS DURING THE DAY : Isaiah 52: 7-10 / Psalm 98: 1. 2-3. 3-4. 5-6 / Hebrews 1: 1-6/John 1: 1-18 (or: John 1:1-5.9-14).

This is the overwhelming feeling that comes over every family welcoming a new baby. When an entire people share in this joy, it reaches its height. The Prophet Isaiah tells us that the Lord has comforted His people and redeemed Jerusalem. The time of prophecies and fragmented revelations has ended, for God has spoken to us through His Son, whom He invites us to adore in the manger.

Yet, upon closer look, everything seems so ordinary: a newborn baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger without even a layette. It is through this humble means that God chooses to enter our world. Is it any wonder that the great ones of this world fail to recognize Him? We often fail to see God because His image confounds us. While we are drawn to the presentable, God identifies with the poor and the overlooked. God took the place of the crippled and was rejected by His people; He identified with the beggar and was cast out; He stood in the place of the weak and was exploited. He knocked at our door, but we failed to respond.

God allowed His Son to come into the world in such conditions so that no one would be excluded from access to Him. The birth of Jesus marks the fullness of time. Since the sin of our first parents, humanity has strayed from its Creator. But God, filled with compassion for our fallen state, sent His Son, born of the Virgin Mary, to redeem us from the slavery of sin.

With the birth of the Savior, God's love and mercy become tangible and accessible. This is a vulnerable love that imposes itself on no one. It is up to each of us to accept, deep within our hearts, the salvation He offers. When this gift is welcomed, and we receive it in our humble sheepfolds, the straw in the stable turns to gold, the cobblestones become diamonds, and the night is filled with radiant light.

Let us welcome this fragile peace as a new birth, as precious as faithful love. In this Eucharist, let us protect it. God becomes a vulnerable child—Emmanuel, God with us—accompanying us on our journey until the day we return to our Father's house.

This reflection is by Father Pascal Sorgho, a priest of the Diocese of Fada N'Gourma, in Burkina Faso.