The Nativity of the Lord
Reading I – Isaiah 52:7-10 | Psalm – 98
Gospel – John 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14
Listen to this week's readings courtesy of the USCCB.
The Nativity of the Lord
The last of the Christmas celebrations has the most theologically complex readings associated with it. Make no mistake, this is still a day of great rejoicing — the psalm makes sure we remember that — but this is the Mass that focuses on the Word of God made flesh.
The first reading blesses the feet of those who bring the good news, the second reading reminds us that it is Christ who is the one who speaks to us in these last days of creation, but above all it is the great hymn that is the Gospel, a reading so beautiful that for centuries it was read at every Mass, the wonderful beginning of John's Gospel which speaks of the word which was there in the beginning and which became flesh and an object of wonder for us. Just as in the prayers the theology of this moment takes precedence, here in this last Mass of Christmas there is no reference to Bethlehem at all.
At the end of the day, it seems, we need to see the images of the birth of Jesus as icons of the theology — the word preached to the lowly, angels, in fact all of the heavens living solely for God's praise, Mary, icon of the Church keeping all these things in her heart for us.
By Glenn CJ Byer, MA SLD. © 2003, OCP. All rights reserved.
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