Christmas Day
Readings:
Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-6
John 1:1-5,9-14
Reflection:
My first thought on being asked to write a reflection for Christmas Day was that, if anyone has nothing better to do on Christmas Day than to read my reflections, then they really need to get a life!
However, that is precisely the whole point of Christmas and the message of John’s opening of his Gospel: The Word, God’s only begotten Son, was made flesh and came to dwell among us, so that we might have life and have it to the full. On stable straw, in a defenceless, dependent baby, and in parents willing to go to any lengths to keep their child safe, God showed us how we must live if we are to be truly alive, – humbly and simply and for others.
So at the end of what will probably for most of us be a wonderful, long and exhausting day, let’s end the day with a Thank You that God himself climbed down the stairway of the stars with a baby in his arms, not just to the Bethlehem stable, but to each of our homes and to our families and to our hearts.
Fr Tom McDonough CP the Parish Priest of St.Brigid’s parish Marrickville.