The Nativity Of The Lord (Christmas) - Mass During The Day Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

The Source of All That We See and Know

Those of us who are 54 years old or older may still remember that in the Mass before Vatican II, that is, before 1962, there was what was called the last Gospel. After the priest gave the blessing to the people he went to the right side of the altar and read aloud the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1 to 14. When he finished the people answered “Deo Gratias” which in Latin means “Thanks be to God”. And then he left the altar.

That last Gospel was read by the priest every Mass for four hundred years, from 1570 when Pope St. Pius V promulgated the Latin Mass until 1970 when Pope Paul Vi promulgated the Mass as we know it today. This gives us an idea of how important this Gospel is for us. For hundred years years thousands of priests proclaimed this Gospel to all the world.

And this is our Gospel reading today in the Mass for the daylight time, with four additional verses. A very important Gospel indeed because here we have the phrase "the Father’s only Son". The Greek word here is “monogenous” which means “only begotten”. In other words Jesus was begotten by God the Father. Jesus was born of God before time began, before anything was created. As the Nicene Creed states, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

The second reading has this sentence from the Psalms "You are my son; this day I have begotten you." Jesus is the son of God. In this third Mass for Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus in eternity, before time began.

The evangelist John calls this son of God as Word. This was also the name of Jesus in the Book of Revelation. Here we read "He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood, and his name was the Word of God" (19:13).

This word "Word" is logos in the original Greek. The word logos is rich in meaning. The Greek dictionary says that it can mean word embodying an idea, a saying, speech, doctrine, story, affair, reason, account. John the writer of the Gospel took this word logos and applied it to Jesus partly because of the use of this word in Ephesus, the place where he lived after he left Jerusalem. In Ephesus four hundred years before John lived there there was a philosopher by the name of Heracletus who taught that the logos was the reason for everything. He and the other philosophers in Ephesus taught that the logos was "the power that puts sense into the world, making the world orderly instead of chaotic. The logos was the power that set the world in perfect order and kept it going in perfect order. They saw the logos as the 'Ultimate Reason' that controlled all things." (ENDURING WORD BIBLE COMMENTARY)

Knowing that this was how the Greeks viewed logos, John the Gospel writer wanted to say in his Gospel, ‘This logos which you say is the Ultimate Reason for all things is Jesus, he was with God and is God.’

But today let us simply reflect on one aspect of the word logos. The logos is the idea behind everything. This is a basic meaning of logos, a word containing an idea, or the idea itself.

We know that everything made by human beings around us began as an idea. This building we are in now began as an idea in the mind of the architect or engineer. The pews before us began as an idea in the mind of a carpenter. The streets outside began as an idea in the mind of an urban planner. The food we cook and eat begins as an idea in the mind of the chef. Our clothes began as an idea in the mind of the tailor or dress maker. All things we see made by human beings begin as an idea.

The world made by God also began as an idea in the mind of God. And this idea is the logos, the Son of God whose birth in Bethlehem and in eternity we celebrate today.

In other words all created reality, seen and unseen, began in the logos, in Jesus. This is what John affirms when he said in our Gospel reading, "All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be."

It is obvious that we too have ideas in our mind. Now we know the source of all these good ideas, the logos, Jesus. In a sense then the reality around us, what we see and know around us, is just the unfolding of logos, the idea of God, Jesus. This is the Word of God who, John affirms, is "his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. . . . From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace."

St. Paul the Apostle expresses this truth beautifully in his letter to the Colossians. He wrote of “Christ—in whom every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden”. In other words all the ideas in all the books in all the libraries and other places in the world, all the inventions that have been discovered and still be to discovered, all the advances in science and technology, all the works of artists and sculptors through all the ages, all of these have their source in this one Word of God, this logos, whose becoming flesh we celebrate today. Let us give him all the glory. Let us acclaim him with the Psalmist (139:17-18): “How weighty are your designs, O God, how vast the sum of them. Were I to recount them, they would outnumber the sands; did I reach the end of them, I should still be with you.” Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

The Word That Is Made Up of Flesh and Blood

Everyday we use words. We are so familiar with words that we do not notice the importance of the Word. Yes, I am talking about the Word, singular, not about words, plural. But Luke who wrote the Gospel for today's reading saw the value of this Word. That is why we heard it read a while ago, "While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Genesareth" (5:1).

Notice carefully what Luke wrote. He said that the crowd was listening to the word of God. He could have said, "listening to the words of God" because Jesus used or spoke many words. But he did not use the plural. Luke used the singular, word. As we shall learn today, the difference is not just one of grammatical number, singular or plural. The singular "word" has many things to say to us which cannot be conveyed by the plural "words".

For hundreds of years before Vatican II, that is, before 1962, the Mass did not end with a blessing but with a reading from the Gospel according to John, the first 14 verses. This portion of John's Gospel is about the Word. It begins, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And the last verse of this portion is, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us". Some of the old people among us here remember this ending although most probably we did not understand it because the priest read it in Latin.

Today we reflect upon this Word who has become flesh and blood and lived on this planet earth.

In the dictionary the basic meaning of "word" is that it is the basic unit of a language. In other words it is something we use to communicate with others. Interestingly enough the word exists in six places or situations, just like water existing in three states: liquid in its normal state, solid as ice and gaseous as vapor.

First, the word exists as a sound. Secondly, it also exists in print. Before it exists as a sound or in print the word exists in our mind as an idea. So, thirdly, the word exists in our mind as an idea. Fourthly, it may also exist in a sign. The deaf and dumb use words but in signs. The Trappist monks use the word in signs because they are not allowed to speak except on special occasions. Fifthly, the word also exists as a series of numbers in the computer and in the media attached to a computer. You see, the computer uses only two numbers, 1 and 0. When a word enters a computer this is translated into numbers composed of 1 and 0, the only language the computer understands. The sixth way that the word exists is the one we are interested to learn today.

Why is the Word so important in our lives? Because it is the Word who created us. In John's Gospel we read, "Through him (that is, the Word) all things came into being, and apart from him nothing came to be." It is through this Word that we exist, that we are here on planet earth, that we are here inside this building.

It is through the word that we are healed of our diseases. We say this everytime we make communion. We say, Lord I am not worthy that you enter under my roof but only say the Word and I shall be healed. Notice we do not say, "only say the words," but "only say the Word," singular.

It is the Word who cleans us of our sinfulness. Jesus told his apostles during his last supper, "You are clean already, thanks to the word I have spoken to you (John 15:3).  

How can the Word create us, heal us of our diseases, clean us of our sinfulness? It can do all these and more because this Word is the Word of God. God spoke the Word to express himself, to communicate himself to us and to our world. And he spoke this one Word, his Son who became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. This Word is most powerful because it is Jesus himself. The sixth way the word is present is in the flesh and blood of Jesus. He is the Word.

It is the Word who improves our lives, who gives us what we need. It is also the Word who can give us what we want. All the sciences in the world use words and all these words come from the one Word of God. If all the words in all the worlds were boiled down to one word, this would be the one Word of God. Scientists do not realize they are studying the Word of God by using his words. The farmers and the employees do not realize that their life comes from the Word, the improvement of their lives comes from the Word, any genuine progress comes from the Word.

Only fellowship or companionship with the Word who has taken on flesh and blood will make our life better because only he knows what words to use to make our life better. He has these words with him.

In the dictionary in the meaning of "word" there is an entry which says that if the word begins with a capital letter it is the Bible. Yes, the Bible is the written Word of God. The Bible is the written Jesus Christ. It is a unique book. It is unlike any other book because what it contains is not just words as in other books. It contains a person, the Word of God, Jesus the Christ. That is why in the Christian Community Bible of the Claretian Publications the first sentence in the introduction reads, "You have opened the Bible; now look for Christ as you read."

Vatican II urged all of us to read the Bible with devotion. It is intimate familiarity with the Word in the Bible, that is, with Christ speaking to us from and through the Bible that will help us live with peace and joy in our life.

As a closing prayer let me borrow from a cellphone message from my friend Fr. Buddy Torres OCD, a Discalced Carmelite missionary in the province of Palawan, Philippines.

Let us bow down our heads to pray.

Lord, teach us to be always Word or Christ centered and refrain from being work or I, me, mine centered. Amen.