One of my favorite aspects of our Catholic Faith is the celebration of liturgical seasons. Throughout the year, the liturgical seasons allow us to contemplate the various mysteries of our faith, presenting us with moments of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again.
During the Christmas Season, which begins (not ends!) on December 25th, the Church invites us to consider the wondrous reality of the Incarnation, that Jesus Christ who is God, took on flesh and became man. We do so with a variety of feasts over the course of weeks. We begin with celebrating the Nativity of our Lord on Christmas Day, the following Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, and one week after Christmas, on the Octave Day, we honor Mary Mother of God. The celebrations continue, bringing us to the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th when we commemorate the manifestation of the Son of God to the three wise men.
Each of these days is significant and worthy of our consideration. When the Messiah came, the One Isiah named “Emmanuel,” God with Us, He did not just appear on the scene as a strong warrior king to take on Israel’s enemies. He was born. Born in the ordinary way, though with extraordinary origins, as a small, fragile, helpless baby. On Christmas day, we rejoice for a child is born to us! The long-awaited Messiah has come, not with fanfare, but hidden in the ordinary, everyday event of a child being born.
Jesus was born into a family. It was in that family that he grew up and “advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” (Luke 2:32) It was from this family that he received his identity as the son of David, an identity crucial for his claim to be the Messiah. From this we see this importance, the value, that God places on family. He did not have to come to us in this way but He chose to do so and, like everything else He chooses do, He did so for a reason, it was intentional and meaningful.
Born into a family, he was born to a mother. It was from his mother that Jesus received His human nature. Conceived in her virgin womb, He received from her His body, the blood that would be shed for the redemption of us all. He loved and cherished His mother and from the Cross, as He prepared to give up the body she gave Him, He asked us to love and cherish her too. On the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God we honor that request while at the same time recognizing the reality that Jesus, born to Mary, was truly God.
As an innocent baby and yet King, God of all creation, Jesus is worthy of praise and adoration. He received that from the angels at the time of His birth and on the Feast of the Epiphany we celebrate the reality that earthly kings too recognized Him and gave Him honor. This feast, with the threefold gifts offered by the wise men, allows us to honor Jesus as both priest and king while at the same time looking forward to His death. It is a recognition that from the moment of His birth He was engaged in His salvific mission. Even the honor paid to Him by these kings has mingled in it the shadow of the Cross.
As we rejoice this Christmas Season let us keep these mysteries in mind. God comes to us as a baby, born of a woman, into a family. Yet, even as a baby, He remains God, worthy of our praise and, even as a baby, He is our Redeemer, the One whose body will be given up for our sake. Rejoice and be glad Christian souls, for unto us a child is born!
Prose for the sake of Poetry 