God Speaks His Word To Us – Christmas Day Mass – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; December 25, 2024

The Word made flesh was born in the stillness of the night, but already the Mass of Christmas Day begins to show forth the blaze of glory revealed in the divine Infant.

Let us linger today just a little on the power of the words: the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

There is an echo of St. John found in today’s 2^nd reading, in the words of St. Paul: 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, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe.

God speaks to us. He does not give us the silent treatment.

He first spoke to us through the very creation of the universe, making known his invisible nature, his eternal power and godhead. (cf. Rm 1:20)

He spoke to Adam, giving him a paternal law, which was a gift of love, even though Adam rejected that love and disobeyed. (cf. Gen 2:16) Even then he did not stop speaking, but called out to Adam, Where are you? (Gen 3:9) This was a loving call to repentance that made known to Adam his separation from God, calling him back to the Father’s house. Even in banishing Adam and Eve from Eden, he spoke leaving a promise of salvation. (cf. Gen 3:15) He went on speaking in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, from Enoch to Noah, from Abraham to Moses, and through all the prophets of Israel and Judah. Speaking he revealed, bit by bit, to fallen man, both the greatness of the mystery of God and the greatness of the promised salvation.

Finally, he spoke to us through his only Son, the Word through whom he made all things, the one Word in comparison to which all the words spoken by the prophets were but faint and distant echoes. St. John of the Cross wrote: “In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son.” (Ascent of Mt. Carmel, cited in CCC 65)

God spoke this one Word in eternity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Yet, until he spoke that Word to us, we remained in the darkness.

He spoke that eternal Word to us when that Word became flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. He spoke that Word to us in the Infant, lying in the manger, in the boy when he was found teaching in the Temple, in the man who, after being baptized in the Jordan by John, went about doing good, driving out devils, working miracles, and teaching with wisdom and authority. He spoke that Word to us in the man who was nailed to the Cross, laid in the tomb, who rose again from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. “The deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation.” (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 2) The Book of Revelation speaks of Christ as The Amen, the faithful and true witness. (Rev 3:14)

God’s Word to us did not simply vanish in the air, like ordinary human words; through his flesh, by which he speaks to us – through his flesh, now glorified at the right hand of the Father and hidden in the Holy Eucharist – the Word teaches us how to hear him speaking to us, here and now, through his Church, through the word of sacred Scripture, through his sacraments, through his providential action in the concrete circumstances of our lives and the people among whom we live. Yet, it is always the same Word, Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, and forever who speaks to us. (He 13:8)

God’s Word to us is a Word that gives life; it has given us the life of grace, the life of the children of God, in our baptism.

God’s Word to us is a Word of love, because the eternal Word of God is the “Word that breathes love,” that is inseparable from the Holy Spirit of Love that proceeds from the Father and the Son. (St. Thomas Aquinas, ST Ia q.43a5 ad3)

And so St. Paul writes, All the promises of God find their “Yes” in him. (2 Cor 1:20)

From the beginning God has spoken to us; in the fullness of time he gave us the fullness of his Word that stands forever. (cf. Gal 4:4, Is 40:8, Mt 24:25)

Do we hear? Do we answer? Do we respond? Does our Amen give glory to God through Christ? (2 Cor 1:20) Through his Word made flesh God has bestowed on us every spiritual blessing in the heavens; do we return to God the blessing of our praise and thanksgiving? (cf. Eph 1:3) He who brings thanksgiving as a sacrifice honors me. (Ps 50[49]:23)

All that we are and have is a pure gift of God, meant to become a word of God; we cannot give back to him anything that we have not first received. What we can give to him is our praise and our gratitude.  We can recognize his work and give praise to the artisan. We can recognize his gift and give thanks to the giver. That is indeed why he created us. That is what he wants of us. That is how the angels greeted the newborn Infant, singing “Glory to God in the highest.” That is the life of the angels and saints in heaven.

Now, the Word that God speaks to us is not a mere sound that vanishes in the air, but a Word that is life, embodied in the man Jesus Christ, in all that he says and does, in his very person. So the words that we speak to God, in praise and thanksgiving, must not be mere words sounding in the air and vanishing, but must be the true expression of a life that conforms to God. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:17)

In particular this thanksgiving should go back to God through the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Thanksgiving, Jesus’ own sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father.

God spoke his Word to us through the flesh of Jesus Christ; through the flesh of Jesus Christ, to which we have been joined, God returns the same Word to himself.