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December 25, 2022Is 52:7-10 | Heb 1:1-6 | Jn 1:1-18
GROW AS A DISCIPLE | PRAY, STUDY, ENGAGE, SERVE
GROW: The day we have been awaiting has arrived: Christ is born! All of our Christmas preparations – wrapping gifts and preparing holiday meals to be shared among family and friends – are meant to glorify and reflect God’s own work for and in us. That is, God’s greatest gift of himself, clothed in mortal flesh, who would one day offer himself as the bread of life: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus came to the world in the form of the most helpless of us all, a newborn infant, so that through him we would be reconciled to the Father, for “to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.” We celebrate the Incarnation of the Lord, for Christ is our salvation! It is through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that we are adopted into God’s family and receive the fullness of his grace. The fullness of God’s truth is revealed in Jesus Christ. “The Lord has made his salvation known”; “he has spoken to us through the Son.” Let us give thanks and rejoice this day!
GO EVANGELIZE | PRAYER, INVITATION, WITNESS, ACCOMPANIMENT
GO: The Good News of Jesus Christ is not meant to be kept to ourselves. Today’s Gospel reading reminds us that John the Baptist testified to the light of Christ before Christ had yet publicly appeared. Sharing the Good News is not optional! Even the earth proclaims the Good News in Isaiah, “announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, ‘Your God is King!’” Indeed, Christ the King – God in human flesh – has arrived. Just as John was sent before the Lord to proclaim his coming, so are we charged: Sent out to the world to go and announce the Gospel of the Lord, “so that all might believe.”
WITNESS: How might you go out and proclaim the coming of the Lord? Don’t forget: sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ isn’t limited just to speaking to others. It includes living as Christ did – feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and the poor, defending the helpless – because we are Christ’s body in the world.
