REFLECTIONS TODAY

On Christmas Midnight, we celebrate the Savior’s birth as a human being, one like us. On Christmas Day, we celebrate the Word taking flesh (Greek sarx)—our humanity in its finiteness and mortality, so different from his former state. The Word Incarnate—Jesus Christ—became like us human beings in all things, except sin. In the words of Paul, “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness” (Phil 2:5-7). 

In imitation of St. Francis of Assisi who asked the people of Greccio in Italy to prepare a “live” Christmas scene to bring to life the memory of the Baby born in Bethlehem, we also have our tradition of preparing our belen to be placed in our churches, public places, and in our homes. Pope Francis notes: “When, at Christmas, we place the statue of the Infant Jesus in the manger, the nativity scene suddenly comes alive. God appears as a child, for us to take into our arms. Beneath weakness and frailty, he conceals his power that creates and transforms all things. It seems impossible, yet it is true: in Jesus, God was a child, and in this way he wished to reveal the greatness of his love: by smiling and opening his arms to all” (Admirabile Signum, 8). At a time when in some places people are even pressured not to put up Christmas decors, the Holy Father encourages the beautiful family tradition of preparing the nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons, and town squares.

Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.