The Birth of Jesus [December 25, 2011]

The Sunday Gospel [December 25, 2011]

John 1:1-18

Merry Christmas Everyone!

1In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2He was in the beginning with God.
3All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be

4through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
5the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
6A man named John was sent from God.
7He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
8He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
11He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
12But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name,
13who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
14And 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.
15John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’”
16From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,
17because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.

Reflection

“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory of the Father’s Son, full of grace and truth.”

Today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. No one is shut out of this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing.

In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator… Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom. ~ St. Leo the Great

Source: The Reflection is from Bro. Abel Navarro (you can visit his blog at http://myblogabelnavarroabel.blogspot.com/).