“No one is shut out from this joy,” Pope St Leo the Great reminds us in the 2nd lesson of the Office of Readings. “Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life… finding no man free from sin, [He] came to free us all.” This is the ultimate gift, the reason for our rejoicing. Taking on our nature and being born in time, He is the final word of revelation. The eternal word of the Father spoken in time. And we shall call his name, Emmanuel, God with us.
See the whole text from Pope St Leo the Great:
Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.
all share the same reason for rejoicing
No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.
The Mystical Nativity by Sandro Botticelli, 1500
He took for Himself our common humanity
In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.
From the Basilica of the Transfiguration, Mount Tabor, Israel 2022
The Heavenly Jerusalem Built from all the Nations of the World
And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to men of good will as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvellous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?
From the Basilica of the Transfiguration, Mount Tabor, Israel 2022
Christian, remember your dignity
Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.
Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.[i]
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Image Credit:
Botticelli , Sandro. The Mystical Nativity. August 5, 2014. WikiMedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mystic_Nativity_by_Sandro_Botticelli.jpg. Public Domain
[i] Pope St Leo the Great. “Christian, Remember Your Dignity.” Christmas – Office of Readings. Accessed December 18, 2022. http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/loh/christmas/christmas/officeofreadings.htm.
(Sermo 1 in Nativitate Domini, 1-3: PI, 54, 190-193)
Posted for the Nativity of the Lord
December 25, 2022
