This Sunday, we have John’s prologue with due solemnity. It is a text that gives an eternal dimension to our life. A text of vast timespan, it goes beyond the historical happenings at Bethlehem. John takes us to a place where our minds find distance and our hearts discover peace. Since the Word was made flesh, human life has been raised to a new level of dignity.
The Angelus is a daily prayer celebrating the incarnation. It is traditionally prayed every day, normally at 12:00 noon. It contains the words “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. Literally, the Lord pitched his tent among us. A tent is the temporary dwelling of the traveller. The Word of the Father made the journey of coming down to us, staying for the short span of a human life before returning to the Father. He invites people to rise up with him. Some reject that invitation but those who accept are given power to become children of God. It is a wonderful promise. Thus, we also say in the Angelus: “Pray for us, oh holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ”.
Christmas was about Christ being born as one of us in a lowly stable. Today’s liturgy is about our birth as children of God. St Paul, in the second reading, describes three aspects of this new life of divine adoption. First, a life free from sin, holy and blameless. Second, a constant attention to God’s presence, living through love in his presence. Third, a life which celebrates the praise of God, to the praise of his glorious grace.
In a sermon by St Leo the Great in the fifth century, he said: “O Christian, be aware of your nobility — it is God’s own nature that you share: do not then, by an ignoble life, fall back into your former baseness. Think of the Head, think of the Body of which you are a member. Recall that you have been rescued from the power of darkness, and have been transferred to the light of God, the kingdom of God. Through the sacrament of baptism you have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit; do not, by evil deeds, drive so great an indweller away from you, submitting yourself once more to the slavery of the devil. For you were bought at the price of Christ’s blood.”
