Fr. Robert Hale, OSB Cam

The Christmas day Gospel is a bit surprising, taken from the very beginning of the Gospel of John, a hymn to the Divine Word, from Eternity, one with God.

Some of us might be just a tad disappointed. For Christmas day, why not the Gospel about Mary, and Joseph, and the baby Jesus, in the manger of Bethlehem? And the Shepherds?

Well, we read about all that in the Gospel of Luke at Midnight Mass. But this one is so different: it’s about the Word of God. There is not even a mention of Jesus the baby in swaddling clothes, or Mary, or Joseph, or the shepherds.

And it’s true, this Gospel is very different. The mystery of the Incarnation is so vast that no one approach is adequate.  We need to hear in the Gospel of Luke that God came as a fragile little baby surrounded by loving mother; St. Joseph, foster father; in a manger, in Bethlehem. It is a very tender human scene. But that isn’t the whole story.

That unique little baby is God of God, light of light, the very Word of God Incarnate And our Gospel today affirms that emphatically. But we have to keep the other in mind because this Divine Word comes not as a full grown powerful general or king, as in some myths, but as a tender baby, in that touching Bethlehem setting, with shepherds. Christmas is about a reality so small, tender, needy as a little baby but at the same time, something as immense, as omnipotent as God of God, through whom all things have been made.

As St. Ambrose Autpert, 8th century monk and abbot exclaimed, “Oh how small, yet how great the mystery, small in His humanity, great in His divinity, small in the kingdom of that time, great in the Kingdom of heaven”.

This illustrates an important point about how we should read the Gospels. No one passage tells it all, but needs to be filled out completed by another of Scripture. To grasp the full solemnity and immensity of today’s Gospel there is perhaps another challenge that we post-moderns have to work through. This Hymn to the divine Word presupposes an ancient reverence for what the Divine Word would be. 

We post-moderns are so assaulted by human words, and busyness. The Italians have a phrase, Fra il dire e il fare, C’e` il mezzo del mare, which translates as “between the saying words, and the actual, real doing there’s half an ocean”. So we sometimes just turn off words. Or we just half listen, very skeptical.

When it comes to the Word of God, the Gospel of John is presupposing, based on the whole of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, that the Divine Word is always true. Is in fact Truth itself. That is who Jesus is.

The Divine Word is not just sound waves, it is powerful event. It effects what it proclaims. God just speaks the word:  Let there be light…and there was light. Through the Word Christ says: Be healed. And the person is healed. Christ the eternal Word, Christ through whom all things are made, visible and invisible, Christ the beloved brother, and friend, and spouse is continually showering us with his gifts, his Christmas gifts.

So any time we are graced with an inner consolation, with a deep insight, drawn into a mysterious inner peace and joy beyond human words, or the gift of contemplation, that is a gift from Christ, the Eternal Word. Any time we rejoice in some beautiful aspect of nature, a striking tree, its leaves of vibrant color, an amazing vivid sunset, the ocean, that is a Christmas gift from Christ, the Eternal, creative Word. When we rejoice in a deep friendship, a loving spouse, and when we find the amazing capacity to give love to another, that is a gift from Christ, God’s eternal Word of self giving Love.

So we can say today, truly, to all, Merry Christmas and in the eternal, creative, revealing, loving Divine Word, who is Christ we can say also tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, until eternity, Merry Christmas. Christ is indeed the Eternal Word.