The Gospel reading for Christmas during the Day, which is seldom used at Masses in my experience, begins: "In the beginning was he Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1: 1) Taken together with the genealogy of Christ, such as that used for the equally seldom used Gospel for the Vigil of Christmas from the Gospel of Matthew, we are challenged to reaffirm our belief in the awesome event that is the Incarnation. Too frequently, I suspect, Christians lapse into various Christological and Trinitarian heresies such as Arianism, Docetism, and Modalism. This is not helped by the naive and childish interpretations that are given by the wider culture and media. The mystery of the Incarnation is equal to that of Creation and the Resurrection. In both cases God acts in a way that cannot be attributed to any other agency. Furthermore, the God that acts is revealed as one who does so out of a loving plan for human beings and who invites them to acts of worship, love and gratitude in response to that love. Taken together we see, as in the Book of Revelation, that God and his plan will not be defeated by the forces of sin and evil that conspire to frustrate his love such as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, King Herod or the Roman Empire. The babe in the manger, tiny and dependent on his mother, is the ray of light shining on a world darkened by sin and condemned to death and futility. The prophecy given in the First Reading for Christmas during the Night is fulfilled: "For a child has been born for us, a son given us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. " (Is 9: 6)
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