Today the whole world rejoices as it celebrates the Solemnity of the Lord’s Nativity. The responsorial psalm describes the reason for our disposition: “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.” The whole spirit of Christmas is manifested through our participation in God’s mystery. Jesus shared in our humanity that we may share in His divinity. Today’s readings remind us of the immensity of God’s grace and mystery. God has to reveal images, signs and traces of the mystery He wants us to share with us. Tangible signs are important so that the human mind and heart could grasp the entire desire of God for all of us. Christmas is participating in the mystery and in the life of God. There are 4 images that are provided by the readings today in order for us participate in God’s blessings.

First, the image of a King. The Prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Lord is King and He will do three important things in the world longing for God’s reign: He will restore Zion or Jerusalem from its ruins; He will comfort His people from their pains; He will bare or show to the peoples His holy arm. As a King, it is implied that He has a Kingdom or belongs to a Kingdom. This King will be the redemption and the victory of the people of Israel. We were told that they will “shout” for joy and they will “break out together into song” because the salvation of God is now at hand.

Second, the image of a Son. The Second Reading today which is taken from the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Christmas is the birth of the “Son” yet what is also revealed here is the “Father.” The Father speaks to us through His Son. The Letter says: “In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son…” As the Son is born to us, we should not forget that the Father is communicated through Jesus. Remember that Jesus taught His disciples to pray the “Our Father.”

Third, the image of the Word. The Gospel of John illustrates the value of the Word who did not only become flesh but the Word contains the fidelity of God’s promise. The Word who became flesh was a concrete evidence of God’s fidelity to His Word; His power through the Word; and the identity He gives through the Word. The Gospel of John made us understand that the glory and truth about God were made manifest through the incarnation of the Word. He said: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”

Fourth, the image of light. Jesus is the Light of the world. He is the light that enlightens the whole of human existence. Through Christ, life entered into the world and this life became the light of the world. This “life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The pagans before longed for the light that would answer all the quests of the human heart. They worshipped the sun thinking that the sun could solve the riddles of human existence. The sun was considered as the “sol invictus.” However, the sun could not solve the questions pertinent to the darkness of sin, the darkness about suffering and illness, and most especially the darkness of death. Man still yearned for the light that penetrates into the deepest darkness of man where he know nowhere to find it. Pope Francis said that: “the sun does not illumine all reality; its rays cannot penetrate to the shadow of death, the place where men’s eyes are closed to its light.” (LF 1) Today, a new light has shone. A light that answers human quests and it is Christ. For in Christ, “those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ, the morning star which never sets.” (LF 1)

The Church today celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. It is celebrated usually on the first Sunday after Christmas and it is also usually the last Sunday of the Year. It is significant that the at outset of the New Year we turn to the family as the source of human life and society as well as we look to the family as a source of hope and joy in moments of pain and crisis. The readings today provide us the meaning and the purpose of the family. Let us discover the rationale of God who entered into the world through the birth of His Son. The family is a school which is indispensable for the society, the Church, and the individual person. Let us illustrate the 5 schools of what the family is all about.

First, the family is the school of “a deeper humanity” (FC 21). It is in the family that the child is introduced to the gift of persons. A child learns to call “Mama” or “Papa” which are names to designate the most important persons on earth. They are images of human intersubjectivity. They mirror the God who is a Person who relate and is introduced to us by Christ as the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. In a person’s life on earth, God as set three names of persons which become the important beings for one to discover their true identity as creatures of God. The Book of Sirach in the first reading says: “God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.” Thus, the three names are “father,” “mother,” “children” which indicate the truth about the individual’s true image and vocation. It is a school of a deeper humanity because there is a communion of persons and John Paul II says: “this happens where there is care and love for the little ones, the sick, the aged; where there is mutual service every day; when there is a sharing of goods, of joys and of sorrows.” (FC 21).

Second, the family is the school of social life. The family is the foundation and basis of human society. It is the basic cell of social life. Whatever one envisions about the society begins with the vision of the family. The values the society wishes to develop are to be found first in the family. The individual does not learn the basic human values from school or from the society but from the family which is an irreplaceable school of human values in the society. John Paul II says: “The family is the first and fundamental school of social living: as a community of love, it finds in self-giving the law that guides it and makes it grow. The self- giving that inspires the love of husband and wife for each other is the model and norm for the self-giving that must be practiced in the relationships between brothers and sisters and the different generations living together in the family.” (FC 37) The family is considered as the “first school of the social virtues that are the animating principle of the existence and development of society itself” (FC 42) and the “first and irreplaceable school of social life, and example and stimulus for the broader community relationships marked by respect, justice, dialogue and love.” (FC 43)

Third, the family is the school of faith. The family is the first venue where the individual learns the first signs of belief and faith. It is the locus where God is introduced. It is the family that brings the child to the church where the parents worships God. It is the parents who bring the child to the place where the child hears the songs, the words, actions, and the wider community in the mass for the first time. The family has a mission to transmit the faith to the children and becomes the source of their blessing from God. John Paul II further says that the family possesses the itinerary of faith and the school of following Christ.

Fourth, the family is the school of prayer. The family is the first school of prayer. The child learns to pray from the value of prayer which parents pass on to the child. We usually hear about the “family that prays together, stays together.” It is the place where the child learns from their parents the “fear of the Lord,” kindness, humility, the sense of sin, the sense of God, and respect because the parents have these values practiced by them. The family is called as the “ecclesia domestica” which was first described by St. John Chrysostom in the 4th century because the family is the first locus where persons realize the value of communion, catechism, values of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God, and the value of faith. Parents are supposed to be the first educators of prayer. In the Gospel today, not only fulfilling the law of Moses, we see the meaning beyond the presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Mary and Joseph. It is the parents who should be the first ones to offer their child to the Lord by introducing him to prayer and the place of prayer.

Fifth, the family is the school about God’s promises. The family is the first witness of God’s unfolding love in one’s life. The parents are great signs of God’s love present in the family and this is illustrated in their unfailing love between them and their children. It is in love that the promises of the Lord are known and are realized. As the deep relationships unfolds in the family, a deeper sense of grace also transpires in the family. Deeper relationships include forgiveness, love, communion, sacrifice and prayer. St. Paul said: “And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.” Love obeys, submits, renews, avoids bitterness and respects. St. Paul underlines that wives could submit to their husbands because “husbands love their wives and avoids all bitterness.” The Book of Sirach, which is the first reading today speaks of the 7 promises God has for the family which cohesively lives for God, forgives, and respects one another. The one who honors parents and honors God, it says: 1) Whoever honors his father atones for sins; 2) Whoever honors his father preserves himself from them; 3) When he prays, he is heard; 4) he stores up riches who reveres his mother; 5) Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children; 6) Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; 7) he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.

Today, the Church celebrates three great events. First, it is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Ceremonially the woman becomes a mother on the eighth day after giving birth and she will be ceremonially clean on the 40th day from birth. On the eighth day, the boy has also to be circumcised. This feast has a biblical basis because in the Book of Leviticus 12:2 it says: “The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period.” The second event is the World Day of Peace. This celebration in the Church was begun by Paul VI on January 1, 1968. It was intended by the Pope to encourage all Catholics to pray and dedicate their lives for the peace of the world. He said: “It is Our desire that then, every year, this commemoration be repeated as a hope and as a promise, at the beginning of the calendar which measures and outlines the path of human life in time, that Peace with its just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development of events to come.” And third, it is the New Year. All human beings desire to begin any undertaking right. The New Year is also a celebration of hope, a yearning, and an expectation. All these can only be possible if there is a sense of gratitude and hope. Today’s readings give us the message of God for all of us as we begin a New Year of undertaking.

The readings today allow us to remember the value of recognizing God’s instruments to recognize His love and mercy towards us. The failure to identify these mediators would be tantamount to pride and self-sufficiency.

1. Moses. Before any blessing would come, the Lord desires that He be known and identified. He reveals Himself to Moses as the source of all protection, blessing, joy, and hope. The first reading recognizes the 6 mediatory acts of Moses. Moses has to do these things in order for God to bless. When the identity of God is revealed, then comes the blessings. a) The Lord bless you; b) Keep you; c) the Lord let His face shine on you; d) the Lord be gracious to you; e) the Lord look kindly on you; f) and the Lord will give you peace.

2. Mary. God sent the Blessed Virgin Mary in order for us to see the face of God and to give birth to the unseen God. The blessings we desire for the New Year will only be part of us if we draw closer to the Mother of God. Bringing ourselves closer to Her disposes ourselves to the Son. In the second reading today, St. Paul reminds us of the three gifts of God to us to make us heirs of the Kingdom: a) the fullness of time has come. This means that God fulfills His promises. When the time is already ripe, God acts in order for all people to enjoy now God’s prevenient grace in order for everybody to be converted to God and enjoy His blessings; b) God sent His Son. Jesus is the image of the unseen Father. This illustrates that God’s mystery can be recognized and the tangibility of God becomes now a source of grace. We would long for the God’s tangibility and the accessibility of grace. The Holy Eucharist reminds us of the tangibility of God’s grace; c) to ransom us from sin. St. Paul reminds us of the purpose of God’s being born in the flesh-it is for us to be alienated from sin. Sin destroys us, Mary builds us towards grace.

3. Son. The third mediator of God is Jesus Christ. The Letter to the Hebrews 8:6 tells us that “but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” Christ is the only mediator between God and man. He is the perfect mediator. The disposition of the shepherds is important in the Gospel today and we find 4 sources of their blessings and joy. a) they went in haste to Bethlehem. When one hears the Word like the shepherds who heard the word from the angels and does what the word demands in haste will find blessings; b) they found the child. There will always be the fulfillment and goal of every undertaking. The shepherds found what was exactly told to them by the angels. After the search in haste, they encountered what they were looking for; c) they returned praising and glorifying God. This indicative of a new life after and encounter with Christ. It is symbolic of a life of prayer, a life of conversion, and a life of new direction; d) they had seen what was told to them. This illustrates the connection between the Word and the blessings of God. God’s word is effective and true. God’s word is not void and an empty promise but God fulfills the word and makes it into reality.

Today, the Church celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord as one of the most important feasts during the Christmas season. It is the Lord’s manifestation to the Gentile world symbolized by the visit and adoration of the Magi. The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek word “epiphaneia” which means “to shine forth” or it may be understood as “to be manifested” or “revealed.” Jesus is now presented to the Gentiles and the magi offered their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Jesus can only “shine forth” if we just intently look on the nature of the Magi. There are three things we can learn from the Magi on how we can encounter the Lord and make Him “shine forth” in our lives.

1. An encounter that is based on sincere search. Man has been endowed by God to search for answers the quests of the heart. We learned about Mary who asked the Angel Gabriel, “how can this be since I have no relations with a man?” and significantly the Angel replied: “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” This illustrates a human person questioning and God answering. So, too with the Magi, in their question: “Where the newborn king of the Jews?” Then, God’s answer was through the presence of the star which guided them to encounter the newborn king of the Jews. A sincere search for God will be aided by His grace to encounter Him. Pope Francis termed this as restless questioning.

2. An encounter that is based on one’s journey. A sincere search for true answers involves a movement and a path of direction. The Magi began to move towards Bethlehem until they found the Child. When one moves according to his sincere search, God will let him encounter the Lord of all blessings. There are four images that the Magi discovered in their journey towards the Child. First, the new light. This light was from the star which pointed to Christ as the New Light. A light that is no longer worshipped by the pagans as the Sol Invictus which was the sun which was believed the most powerful light that lighted up the world. But the light of the sun could not penetrate the darkness of sin, illness, and death. So, the Prophet Isaiah, in the first reading today, prophesied “your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.” This new light is the Lord Himself which enlightens all forms of darkness. Second, the new illusory light. The illusory light was demonstrated by Herod. Upon the audience with the Magi, Herod told them that he too would know who is newborn king of the Jews. This is illusory because he was the one who desired to be the king and not the newborn King of the Jews. He is the false light. We were told that when he knew that a newborn king of the Jews was born, he “was deeply troubled and Jerusalem with Him.” False journeys would not reach an encounter with the Child. Third, the new path. The Magi were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod once they encountered the Child. “They departed for their country by another way.” An encounter with the Lord will always lead us to a new path of life. A new life encounter with the Lord is a new life of direction. Fourth, the new geographical connection. The roles of Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the story of the Magi is crucial to our prophetic understanding. Jesus was born in Bethlehem with all the grandeur of joy and the Good News. The angels sang “glory to God in the Highest.” But Jerusalem became a place of conflict, of death, of envy, and false worshipping symbolized by Herod. Thus, Bethlehem is symbolic of life of Jesus, Jerusalem as the place where He will be crucified.

3. An encounter that is based on worship. The Magi demonstrated the new worship that is linked with the newborn Child. Their gifts of gold symbolized the Kingship of Christ. He is the King of Kings; frankincense symbolized the new prayer, worship, and liturgy that the Child will be introducing; and myrrh symbolized the significance of the death of Christ. The encounter which the Magi had with the Child is symbolic of life of silence, prayer, peace, and joy. They had to find another route in leading home not to spoil the meaningful encounter they had with the Child. A new life of prayer and worship leads us to new encounter with God. Pope Francis calls this as wonder of worship.

Today, we close the Christmas season and we simultaneously begin our journey in the Sundays of the Ordinary Time. After Jesus was presented to the poor when the shepherds came and worship the Child, and how the Child Jesus was also presented to the Gentiles symbolized by the Magi, we come now to witness Jesus to be presented to the mostly Jewish crowd who came to be baptized by John in the Jordan. Therefore, the Baptism of the Lord is a form of epiphany (epiphaneia which means “to shine forth”). In the mystery of the Baptism of the Lord, Jesus is introduced as a new light for the world. It is because the baptism is the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry. The identity of Jesus and the actuality of His ministry are gradually introduced and experienced. What is baptism as introduced by Christ?

1. Servant. Baptism is the inaugurating rite and moment where one becomes a servant of God. Jesus demonstrated this by inaugurating His ministry after His baptism. He is the Son who becomes the Servant of God. The Prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah will take the form of a servant. The word “to serve” is translated in Greek as “diakonia.” Jesus is the servant of the Father. He is the suffering servant whom Isaiah prophesied. The catechism of the Catholic Church no. 440 says “He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son of Man “who came down from heaven,” and in his redemptive mission as the suffering Servant: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  In the first reading today, the Prophet Isaiah describes this suffering servant who will come in the future. He will carry in himself 5 distinguishing marks. a) he is the servant whom God upholds; b) he is the servant whom God is pleased; c) he is the servant in whom His spirit rests; d) he is the servant who will bring justice to the nations; e) he is the servant whom the world waits.

2. Spirit. Baptism is the sacrament where one is introduced in the life of the Spirit. Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist is unique in the sense that Jesus combines the elements of water, which was the baptism of John, and the Spirit which was an important element introduced during His baptism. It was John the Baptist who said: “I have baptized you with water, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” There are two elements involved in these words of John: first, Jesus completes the baptism of John. Jesus now brings to the Church the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. Second, the baptism of Jesus is superior to that of John’s as it is linked to His identity. John the Baptist declared: “One mightier than I is coming after me.”

3. Father. The voice of the Father reveals the communion of persons in the Blessed Trinity. In the event of the Baptism of Christ, “coming up out of the water” immediately John the Baptism saw the heavens being torn open.” A voice came from heaven saying was heard: “You are my beloved Son, with You I am well pleased.” Jesus’ baptism revealed the relationship between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus, in a baptism, the rite introduces us to a divine life of God. Baptism makes us part of the Kingdom of God.