Christmas Day - Thursday the 25th of December 2025

Isaiah 52:7-10/ Ps 98(97)/ Hebrews 1:1-6/ John 1:1-5, 9-14

So here it is, merry Christmas! Everybody's having fun. Look to the future now, it's only just begun.

Those of us of a certain age will recognise these lyrics from Slade's 1973 song that has become a staple of Christmas music heard every year. Christmas is indeed here. We have waited in anticipation and prepared for it during the weeks of Advent. We are celebrating with family and friends, and we traditionally look to the future at this time.

Like the songs we hear each Christmas, we return year after year to the familiar story of the baby being born in Bethlehem. The Christmas story is so familiar to us that we might need to remind ourselves of what it means and who this baby born into such simple circumstances truly is. For this we turn to Scripture, the Bible, the story of the relationship between God and us, his people. It is the four gospels that give us the best view of who the baby in the manger is, but each one has a different emphasis. Each version opens with a distinct focus that sets the tone for the portrayal of Jesus. Together they are the foundation of our faith, which is based on who Jesus is.

Matthew starts his account with the long genealogy that Joseph adopts Jesus into, establishing him as the long-promised Messiah. Mark misses out the birth of Jesus entirely, starting with the baptism of Jesus as a grown man. Luke begins with the announcements of the conception of John the Baptist and Jesus. But it is John's gospel that I find the most revealing, the most beautiful, and the most informative. It might seem strange that at Mass on Christmas Day, the gospel does not mention the child in the manger. We are instead given the beginning of John's Gospel, the one that gets to the very heart of who the baby in the manger is and what it means for us. It starts at the beginning of time with the words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him."

This prologue to John's gospel is high theology, echoing Genesis, the first book of the Bible. It puts the emphasis on the pre-existence of Jesus and his divinity. Jesus is the Word of God. God spoke all things into existence through his Word. It was that Word that took flesh and lived, suffered, and died, fully human but also fully God. The baby in the manger is that Word of God, the Word that was with God and was God, the Word through which all things were made. We are given John's prologue on Christmas Day precisely because we need to see beyond the touching scene of the stable. We need to understand that the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes is the eternal Word who spoke the universe into existence, who formed the mountains and filled the seas, who breathed life into Adam and walked with our first parents in the Garden.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims today, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness”,  This messenger, this good news, is not merely a message, it is a Person. The Word has not simply been spoken; the Word has become flesh and dwells among us. God has not sent us a letter or a philosophy or a law, He sent Himself. This is what Christmas means for us. God became human, lived amongst us, suffered and died as one of us. God became what we are so that we might become what he is. This is what we celebrate during the Christmas season. Through God becoming human we become children of God. This is our calling, our destiny, our hope. God became human, so we humans can be divine. This is at the heart of our faith, the reason for our joy.

John goes on to say "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. We live in a world that can seem shrouded in darkness, the darkness of war and violence, of poverty and injustice, of loneliness and despair, of sin and death. But today we proclaim with confidence that the darkness has not overcome the light. The Word who became flesh is the light of all people, and no darkness can extinguish him. Christmas is not just about a baby being born long ago. We do not celebrate a past event but a present reality. Jesus is born today, the Word continues to dwell among us. Emmanuel, God-with-us, is not just a name from history but a living truth. In Holy Communion, the Word made flesh, the same Jesus, becomes present to us again, the Word speaks and dwells in our hearts and souls.

Christmas calls us to wonder in awe at this great mystery that surpasses all understanding. Let us not allow familiarity to breed indifference. Let us see Christmas with fresh eyes, recognising that the stable of Bethlehem brings us the creator of the universe. John tells us that his own people did not accept him. Do we fail to accept Jesus into our lives? Do we keep him at arm's length, allowing him into our churches but not into our hearts, into our celebrations but not into our daily lives? Let us open our hearts to accept him fully. We are called to be witnesses, to proclaim the good news that the Word has become flesh, that God is near, that salvation has come. Because the Word became flesh, we are called to become more human, which means becoming more like God. We are called to grow in grace and truth, to reflect the light that has come into the world, to be living words that speak of God's love to a world desperate to hear it.

The Slade song tells us to look to the future now, for its only just begun. How prophetic those words are, Christmas is not an ending but a beginning. Today begins the story of God walking our earth, teaching us how to live, showing us the Father's face, opening for us the gates of heaven. Today begins our journey toward that fullness of life that Jesus came to bring. Today begins the transformation of the world through the power of love made flesh.

So merry Christmas! Let us have fun, let us celebrate, let us rejoice. But let us also wonder in awe at the manger, recognising that the baby lying there is the Word through whom all things were made, the light that darkness cannot overcome, the Son of God who became the Son of Mary so that we can become children of God. May Christmas fill us with wonder, with joy, with hope, with love. May we who have received the Word made flesh go out to be living words of God's love in our world. May the light that has come into the world shine through us, dispelling the darkness and leading all people to the knowledge and love of God.

God Bless Brendan.