Ornament: The Chi-Rho
Jesus is fully God, and fully Man, and now he is born as a little baby! He has come to us to save us by bringing us back to the Lord, to show us how much he loves us, to set us an example of how to live, and so we too can share in God's nature.
Depending on which Mass you go to to celebrate Christmas, you will hear a different reading. The one tonight, on Christmas Eve, prepares us to remember who it is that we are receiving. You will hear tonight the story of all of Jesus' ancestors - his relatives that came before him - starting with Abraham, highlighting King David, and then finally to his foster father Joseph and his mother Mary. This reminds us, just like our own Jesse Tree, of how God the Father had planned to save us from teh very beginning of our falling away from him, and reminds us how the faithfulness of his people, despite their flaws, has helped the Lord's own plan to save us come to happen.
During Midnight Mass or Mass at Dawn, you will hear the very story of Jesus' birth - reminding us again how despite those who have worldly power like Ceasar Augustus, or anyone from our time who might have power and be in charge, Jesus, even as a weak baby in a dirty stable is the Greater Ruler and far more powerful.
Mass during the day on Christmas comes from the Gospel of John, who instead of telling a story about what happened on Earth, he tells a story of what God did and who Jesus really is:
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race:
the light shines in the darkness.
and the darkness has not overcome it.
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.
This reminds us, as the symbol that we use today on our tree, of Jesus' two natures - that Jesus has two answers to "WHAT are you?" He is both God, and both human - not a little bit of each, but fully both, and both his "god" and his "human" are completely together. He is just as much God as God the Father, Creator of the Earth is, and just as much human as Mary herself is. Our symbol is two things that are completely together too - one "Chi" (the P looking symbol" and one "Rho" (the X looking symbol). And how wonderful a mystery that Jesus as both God and Man is!
Jesus reveals to us the love that God has for us because his mission is to help reunite us with the Lord, to erase our fallen nature that Adam and Eve chose for us. Jesus gives us the nature of God the Father by adopting our fallen nature and making something new - a fully God-fully human nature that we too can join in. He has made our salvation easier, but also has saved us not by erasing what we are, but by taking what we are and making it more beautiful, more incredible, more powerful, like God himself is.
Finally, after centuries and generations of waiting in hope that The Lord gave us through Abaraham, waiting for a King and Savior God sent his very self to rule and save us. And the proof that we constantly asked for is in His face, the face of a tiny baby who finally shows us what the God of All Creation looks like:
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
Prayer:
Our Father.
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