Christmas Morning Prayer: The Word Was Made Flesh

This is Christmas Day, the twenty-fifth of December, the feast of the Nativity of the Lord. Christ is born. If you prayed the Christmas Novena, the manger in your house has waited empty for nine nights, and today it is filled.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we read from the Gospel of Saint Luke, the second chapter, where the road that began nine nights ago comes to its end in the little town of Bethlehem. Saint Luke tells it like this: “And it came to pass that when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her first born son and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn.”

That is the whole of it, in two sentences. A young mother gives birth far from home, wraps her baby in strips of cloth the way mothers did in those days, and lays Him in the only bed there is, a feeding trough for animals. The Son of God comes into the world and His first cradle belongs to the animals.

Then Saint Luke turns to the hills outside the town, where some men are working through the night. He goes on: “And there were in the same country shepherds watching and keeping the night watches over their flock. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them and the brightness of God shone round about them: and they feared with a great fear.”

Shepherds were not important people. They lived outdoors with the sheep, and nobody asked their opinion about anything. They are the first people to be told that He is born. The angel speaks to them, and Saint Luke gives us his words: “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: For, this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.”

Notice the words “to you”. The news is not announced to the emperor in Rome, or to the king in Jerusalem. It is given first to a few tired men in a field, and the angel says it is for all the people. Then he gives them a sign, and it is not a light in the sky. Saint Luke writes: “And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.”

The sign is a baby in a feeding trough. That is how they will recognise the Saviour of the world: by how small and poor He is.

And then the whole sky breaks open. Saint Luke tells it like this: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will.”

These are the first words of the Gloria, the hymn the Church still sings at every Sunday Mass outside Advent and Lent, and they were first sung over a field of sheep. The shepherds do not stay to think about it. Saint Luke says: “And they came with haste: and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.” And while everyone who heard it wondered, he tells us one more thing about the mother: “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.”

Saint John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, tells what this night means in a single line. Saint John writes it like this: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

This is what Christmas is. The Word is the eternal Son of God, who was with the Father before anything was made. He did not stop being God when He was born, and He was not only pretending to be a man. The Church teaches that He is true God and true man, one person, the Son, who took a real human body from His mother, and has a real human soul. He came to reconcile us with God, to show us how much God loves us, to show us how to live, and to make us sharers in His own life. The Child in the manger is the same Lord who made the stars the shepherds were sitting under.

Now back to you.

If your house is full today, with children, noise, the smell of cooking and too many people in one room, the Child was born into a family too, and He is at home in yours. Let someone read the Gospel before the presents are opened, even if only the youngest is listening.

And if you are alone today, because of a death, or a distance, or a family that has broken apart, or a shift at work, you are not outside this feast. The first people to hear the news were men working the night shift, and it was to them that the angel said “to you”. Mary kept all these words and pondered them in her heart, and you can do the same, quietly, wherever you are. He came for the ones in the field as much as for the ones in the house.

One thing to do today. If the Child is not yet in the manger, let the youngest person in the room lay Him there now. Then read the second chapter of Saint Luke aloud, the first twenty verses, together if you can, and alone if you are alone.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, Child of Bethlehem, true God and true man,

You came so small and so poor that a manger was enough.

Thank You for coming to us.

Come into this house today as You came into Bethlehem.

Be at our table, in our noise, and in our quiet.

Bless the ones who are with me, and the ones who are far away,

and the ones whose places are empty this year.

Stay close to everyone who is alone today,

and let them know that the good tidings were for them too.

Holy Mary, you kept all these things in your heart.

Keep this day in mine, so that when the lights are put away,

I still remember that God was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

Come, Lord Jesus, and stay.

Amen.