CHRISTMAS 2016

HYMN :  Mary Did You Know – Kenny Rogers

v  Today we will reflect on the meaning of Christmas in our life, following the  story “Christmas Carol” by  Charles Dickens.  

v  The three ghosts represent the Christmas from the past, present and future.  

v  They are an invitation to look at our own life.

v  Asking  ourselves three questions which we may want to share with someone.

QUESTIONS

      What is the best memories I have of Christmas?  

      What are my worries for this year's Christmas?   

      How do I wish Christmas be in the future? 

FIRST READING: Is 9:1-6

«   Isaiah sings the exuberant joy of the people who has passed from the darkness of suffering and oppression to the light of liberation. 

«  The prophet compares this joy with the joy of the farmer when he collects his crop after months of uncertainty, will it be saved or will it be destroyed by some natural disaster or some enemy.   

«  The cause of this joy is that the oppressor- the rod, the yoke, the boot- have been eliminated. 

«  And this because a child is born, a son is given to us, he has the attributes of an adult, full of wisdom and kindness, he is the Prince of Peace, but he is also a baby.  

«  He will come from David's line, his kingdom will have no end, his will be a kingdom of justice and respect for the law. 

«  And all of this will be done by the zeal, the love of the  Lord.  

SECOND READING :  Titus 2:11-14

Ø  This is a very beautiful reading which we do every year at the Midnight Mass.

Ø  All that the Prophet Isaiah announced has been fulfilled by the Baby of Bethlehem, God made flesh for love of us. 

Ø  The grace of God, who saves all, has been made visible in Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Baby from Bethlehem.  

Ø  He will teach us how to live as true human beings, images of God the Creator, in justice, that means seeking what is good and eliminating from our life all that is not good.  

Ø  And we live this life awaiting the manifestation of our savior and God Jesus Christ.   

Ø  He will do the liberation that Isaiah announced giving his life for us and in place of us, to free us from evil and to help us to do good in justice and truth. 

GOSPEL  – Lk 2:1-14

Ø  In the Midnight Mass we read this gospel from Luke which tells us of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem

Ø  Mary who is pregnant and Joseph have traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, because Joseph is from David's family.   

Ø  Luke says only that as they arrived in Bethlehem   the time came for Mary to give birth to her child.    

Ø  We may use our imagination to make this situation real for us, thus being able to enter more deeply into the mystery. 

Ø  During their journey they had the opportunity to share about the mystery they were involved with, in which they found themselves by the will of God which they accepted. 

Ø  They shared the many questions they had in regards to this child, who was like any other child, but at the same time was so different, he was supposedly the Son of God, what does it mean to be son of God? Would they know how to raise him?  

Ø  They shared also their many fears, how  and where would she give birth? Who would help her? She was a very young mother, far from her family, from the older women of her town who could help her. Who would help her? 

Ø  Joseph also had his fears, how would he be able to help Mary, his wife, in this situation?    

Ø  I like to think that he was the one who helped her to give birth, and that both were in awe when they saw, for the first time, the face of that baby, who was crying like any other baby, but they knew in faith that he was the Son of the Father, God. 

Ø  I think that in front of this mystery, so sublime and, at the same time, so close to our own life, the only reaction is to remain in silence adoring, loving, allowing the mystery to overtake us.   

Ø  God is in our midst in human flesh and he will remain with us forever, because he has become one of us, of our own flesh, our own race.  

Ø  With his incarnation and birth he has made of all the races one, eliminating all the differences which keep us apart, he has made of us the race of his brothers and sisters who share with him the same and only Father, God the Father. 

 The Roman Church celebrates the birth and the Eastern Church the epiphany. Both mysteries are 

THE EPIPHANY OF GOD IN HIS SON MADE FLESH IN THE WOMB OF MARY  

IN BOTH DAYS, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY,

WE CELEBRATE THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD

THE WORD HAS PUT HIS TENT AMONG US

GOD HAS BECOME HUMAN TO MAKE US DIVINE. 

  POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION  AMORIS LAETITIA

Pope Francis

Love is generous

101. We have repeatedly said that to love another we must first love ourselves.  Paul’s hymn to love, however, states that love “does not seek its own interest”, nor “seek what is its own”.  This same idea is expressed in another text: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil 2:4).  The Bible makes it clear that generously serving others is far more noble than loving ourselves.  Loving ourselves is only important as a psychological prerequisite for being able to love others: “If a man is mean to himself, to whom will he be generous?  No one is meaner than the man who is grudging to himself” (Sir 14:5-6).

102. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that “it is more proper to charity to desire to love than  to desire to be loved”; indeed, “mothers, who are those who love the most, seek to love more than to be loved”. Consequently, love can transcend and overflow the demands of justice, “expecting nothing in return” (Lk 6:35), and the greatest of loves can lead to “laying down one’s life” for another (cf. Jn 15:13).  Can such generosity, which enables us to give freely and fully, really be possible?  Yes, because it is demanded by the Gospel: “You received without pay, give without pay” (Mt 10:8).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

POPE FRANCIS, POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION  AMORIS LAETITIA