The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Solemnity, December 25
The Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas, celebrated on December 25th, is the feast of feasts of the Christian year, the day on which the Church celebrates the greatest event in human history: the Incarnation of the Son of God, His birth as a man from the womb of the Virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem. The entire liturgical year is oriented toward this mystery and toward the Paschal Mystery of Christ's death and Resurrection, which Christmas anticipates and which gives it its full meaning.
The Gospel of Luke provides the most detailed account of the Nativity: the census of Caesar Augustus, the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, the stable because there was no room at the inn, the birth of the Child, the wrapping in swaddling clothes, the laying in a manger. The angels appear to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem and announce the birth of the Saviour with the song Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. The shepherds hasten to Bethlehem and find Mary and Joseph and the Infant lying in the manger.
The Gospel of Matthew provides the account of the Magi, the mysterious wise men from the East who followed a star to find the newborn King of the Jews and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Their journey, their encounter with the murderous Herod, their worship of the Child, and their return by another route to avoid Herod's trap give the Nativity narrative its universal scope: the Saviour of Israel is also the Saviour of the nations.
The Church celebrates Christmas with three Masses: at midnight, at dawn, and during the day, each with its own particular theology. The midnight Mass celebrates the mystery of the Incarnation in the darkness of the night; the dawn Mass celebrates the shepherds' haste to see the Saviour; the daytime Mass opens with the sublime prologue of the Gospel of John, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, revealing the full depth of the mystery of what has just been celebrated.