Fr Marco Lazzaron
n this Christmas season, we have heard this text from the Prologue of the Gospel of John several times (Jn 1:1-18). What might seem like a simple repetition is actually a way the Liturgy uses to help us probe and deepen the mystery of Christmas. It is a text that, amid all the lights of this season, seeks to guide us to what is essential, to help us grasp that Jesus is, as we profess in our creed: “Light from Light, true God from true God”. Yes! Christ Jesus is “the true light, which enlightens everyone”, and “all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be”.
God, who has always spoken through the prophets and the Law, today lets himself be seen, touched, and heard in the flesh—in the face, the cry, and the limbs of a newborn child. This child is like Jacob’s tent (First Reading), but no longer a temporary, shifting tent. No! This tent is permanently set among us. This means that our God will forever be a God of flesh, a God made human—“and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (lit. “he pitched his tent”)—who knows our sufferings and the pains of the world, who acts with his sons and daughters, and who always loves and forgives. Today, then, we are called to contemplate this “tent,” that is, to contemplate God-with-us (the Emmanuel), forever.
It is also worth noting that the birth of Jesus Christ, the Word of life, reveals that God chose poverty for himself in coming among us. The scene that the shepherds were the first to see, and which confirmed the message given to them by the angel, is that of a stable where Mary and Joseph had sought shelter, and of a manger in which the Virgin had laid the newborn wrapped in swaddling clothes. God chose this poverty! He wanted to be born in this way, and we might immediately add: he wanted to live this way, and even to die this way. Why?
Saint Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori explains it in simple terms in a famous Italian Christmas hymn, Tu scendi dalle stelle (“From starry skies thou comes”). In this hymn we hear the words: “To You, who are the Creator of the world, there is no clothing or fire, O my Lord. Dear chosen little child, how this poverty makes me love You even more, for love made You poor as well”.
Here is the answer: love for us moved Jesus not only to become human, but to become poor. Along the same lines, we can recall Saint Paul’s words: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2Cor 8:9). Let us meditate, then, on the humility and the poverty of God!
And so, let us ask God our Father—who, in the Word made flesh dwelling among us, reveals his glory to the world—to help us be humble people and to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so that, believing in his Only-Begotten Son, we may taste the joy of being his children. Amen!