The Incarnate Jesus dwells among His creations

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Mass During the Day

Reading 1

Isaiah 5:7-10

7How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King!”[1]

8Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion.

9Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the LORD comforts His people, He redeems Jerusalem.

10The LORD has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6

R. (3c)All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

1Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done wondrous deeds; His right hand has won victory for Him, His holy arm.

R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

2The LORD has made His salvation known: in the sight of the nations He has revealed His justice. 3He has remembered His kindness and His faithfulness toward the house of Israel.

R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

3All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God. 4Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; break into song; sing praise.

R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

5Sing praise to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and melodious song. 6With trumpets and the sound of the horn sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.

R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

Reading 2

Hebrews 1:1-6

1Brothers and sisters: In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;[2] 2in these last days, He has spoken to us through the Son, whom He made heir of all things and through whom He created the universe, 3who is the refulgence of His glory, the very imprint of His being, and who sustains all things by His mighty word. When He had accomplished purification from sins, He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

5For to which of the angels did God ever say: You are my Son; this day I have begotten you? Or again: I will be a father to Him, and He shall be a son to me? 6And again, when He leads the firstborn into the world, He says: Let all the angels of God worship Him.[3]

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord.

For today a great light has come upon the earth.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

John 1:1-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.[4][5][6] 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.[7]

6A man named John was sent from God.[8] 7He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through Him.[9] 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.[10] 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.[13]

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.[14]

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.’”[15]

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.

OR John 1:1-5, 9-14

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.

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. 

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Vigil Mass (pls. click here)

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Midnight Mass (pls. click here)

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Dawn Mass (pls. click here) 

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Mass During the Day (pls. click here)

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Notes on readings:

[1] Isaiah 52:7-10 - God leads His people back from Babylon to Zion, from whose ruined walls watchmen . . . shout for joy; compare with Romans 10:15.

[2] Hebrews 1:1-4 - The letter opens with an introduction consisting of a reflection on the climax of God's revelation to the human race in His Son. The divine communication was initiated and maintained during Old Testament times in fragmentary and varied ways through the prophets (Hebrews 1:1), including Abraham, Moses, and all through whom God spoke. But now in these last days (Hebrews1:2) the final age, God's revelation of His saving purpose is achieved through a son, that is, one who is Son, whose role is Redeemer and Mediator of creation. He was made heir of all things through His death and exaltation to glory, yet He existed before He appeared as man; through Him God created the universe. Hebrews 1:3-4, which may be based upon a liturgical hymn, assimilate the Son to the personified Wisdom of the Old Testament as refulgence of God's glory and imprint of His being (Hebrews 1:3; compare with Wisdom 7:26). These same terms are used of the Logos in Philo. The author now turns from the cosmological role of the preexistent Son to the redemptive work of Jesus: he brought about purification from sins and has been exalted to the right hand of God (see Psalm 110:1). The once-humiliated and crucified Jesus has been declared God's Son, and this name shows His superiority to the angels. The reason for the author's insistence on that superiority is, among other things, that in some Jewish traditions angels were mediators of the old covenant (see Acts 7:53; Galatians 3;19). Finally, Jesus' superiority to the angels emphasizes the superiority of the new covenant to the old because of the heavenly priesthood of Jesus.

[3] Hebrews 1:6 - And again, when He leads: the Greek could also be translated "And when He again leads" in reference to the parousia.

[4] John 1:1-18 - The prologue states the main themes of the gospel: life, light, truth, the world, testimony, and the preexistence of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos, who reveals God the Father. In origin, it was probably an early Christian hymn. Its closest parallel is in other christological hymns, Colossians 1:15-20 and Philippians 2:6-11 . Its core (John 1:1-5, 10-11, 14) is poetic in structure, with short phrases linked by "staircase parallelism," in which the last word of one phrase becomes the first word of the next. Prose inserts (at least John 1:6-8, 15) deal with John the Baptist.

[5] John 1:1 - In the beginning: also the first words of the Old Testament (Genesis 1:1). Was: this verb is used three times with different meanings in this verse: existence, relationship, and predication. The Word (Greek logos): this term combines God's dynamic, creative word (Genesis), personified preexistent Wisdom as the instrument of God's creative activity (Proverbs), and the ultimate intelligibility of reality (Hellenistic philosophy). With God: the Greek preposition here connotes communication with another. Was God: lack of a definite article with "God" in Greek signifies predication rather than identification.

[6] John 1:1 - What came to be: while the oldest manuscripts have no punctuation here, the corrector of Bodmer Papyrus P75, some manuscripts, and the Ante-Nicene Fathers take this phrase with what follows, as staircase parallelism. Connection with John 1:3 reflects fourth-century anti-Arianism.

[7] John 1:5 - The ethical dualism of light and darkness is paralleled in intertestamental literature and in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Overcome: "comprehend" is another possible translation, but compare with John 12:35; Wisdom 7:29-30.

[8] John 1:6 - John was sent just as Jesus was "sent" (John 4:34) in divine mission. Other references to John the Baptist in this gospel emphasize the differences between them and John's subordinate role.

[9] John 1:7 - Testimony: the testimony theme of John is introduced, which portrays Jesus as if on trial throughout His ministry. All testify to Jesus: John the Baptist, the Samaritan woman, scripture, His works, the crowds, the Spirit, and His disciples.

[10] John 1:11 - What was his own . . . his own people: first a neuter, literally, "his own property/possession" (probably = Israel), then a masculine, "his own people" (the Israelites). 

[11] John 1:13 - Believers in Jesus become children of God not through any of the three natural causes mentioned but through God who is the immediate cause of the new spiritual life. Were born: the Greek verb can mean "begotten" (by a male) or "born" (from a female or of parents). The variant "he who was begotten," asserting Jesus' virginal conception, is weakly attested in Old Latin and Syriac versions.

[12] John 1:14 - Flesh: the whole person, used probably against docetic tendencies (compare with ⇒ 1 John 4:2 h(compare with 1 john 4;2; 1:7). Made His dwelling: literally, "pitched his tent/tabernacle." Compare with the tabernacle or tent of meeting that was the place of God's presence among his people (Exodus 25:8-9). The incarnate Word is the new mode of God's presence among His people. The Greek verb has the same consonants as the Aramaic word for God's presence (Shekinah). Glory: God's visible manifestation of majesty in power, which once filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) and the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11), is now centered in Jesus. Only Son: Greek, monogenes, but see the footnote on John 1:18. Grace and truth: these words may represent two Old Testament terms describing Yahweh in covenant relationship with Israel (compare with Exodus 34:6), thus God's "love" and "fidelity." The Word shares Yahweh's covenant qualities.

[13] John 1:15 - The ethical dualism of light and darkness is paralleled in intertestamental literature and in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Overcome: "comprehend" is another possible translation, but compare with John 12:35; Wisdom 7:29-30.

[14] John 1:16 - Grace in place of grace: replacement of the Old Covenant with the New (compare with John 1:17). Other possible translations are "grace upon grace" (accumulation) and "grace for grace" (correspondence).

[15] John 1:18 - The only Son, God: while the vast majority of later textual witnesses have another reading, "the Son, the only one" or "the only Son," the translation above follows the best and earliest manuscripts, monogenes theos, but takes the first term to mean not just "Only One" but to include a filial relationship with the Father, as at Luke 9:38 ("only child") or Hebrews 11:17 ("only son") and as translated at John 1:14. The Logos is thus "only Son" and God but not Father/God.