The nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
Since we won’t be having any Freeman tomorrow on Dec.25th, so we shall consider today as our Christmas article and let’s start with the gospel reading on Christmas Day that you can find in John 1: 1-18.
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be 4 through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; 5 the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him .11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 12 But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name, 13 who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
14 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. 15 John 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.”
16 From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, 17 because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
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In our readings, we learned that early Christians did not really celebrate Christmas Day, as they all celebrated Easter Sunday or the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was of prime importance to Christianity because if our Lord Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead… then everything that he prophesied that would happen to him would have gone to naught. But then history clearly records the fact that in the first 300 years after our Lord Jesus resurrected, people did not celebrate their birthdays…but the death anniversaries especially of saints.
The first recorded date when Christmas Day was celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD during the time of Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome. This was followed by a decree by Pope Julius 1 officially recognizing December 25th as the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Later during the time of St. Francis of Assisi, he added what we know now as the “Belen” the diorama of the Holy Family in a cave or as what we do here in the Philippines inside a nipa hut.
The pagan Roman feast of Saturnilia is celebrated on December 25th and so too with the Jewish Festival of Lights and Europeans celebrated winter’s solstice. This is why many anti-Catholics accused us of celebrating Christmas Day that the pagans also celebrated. I submit that the early Church Fathers may have used this date to celebrate Christmas so that the once-upon-a-time pagan worship would now be worshiping the Living God!
However for me that is not really the point. The whole point of Christmas is our realization of God’s promise to fallen man… that he would send a messiah to redeem humankind and make us worthy of re-entering Paradise. This is why we celebrate Christmas to thank God. We must never forget that we men are sinners and therefore accept the reality that by our own merit, we cannot hope to attain eternal life and see God face-to-face.
We learned of this from the story of the rich young man who followed all the religious requirements of the Jewish Law, yet in order to be justified, the Lord Jesus Christ told him, “Go sell all your possession and follow me.” But the rich young man who was without a doubt a very good person left the Lord dejected because he had so much wealth… and I guess he was too attached to his possession. As the young man left, the Lord told his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
This brought St. Peter to ask the Lord, “Lord, we gave you everything we have… but who can be saved?” Then the Lord answered him, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Please understand clearly this teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the reality that if he did not come down from heaven, we human beings could never hope to attain a life of eternal bliss. Merry Christmas to one and all and thank you Lord!
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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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