stained glass window of angel

Gospel Reflection

December 25, 2024: The Nativity of the Lord

Gospel: John 1:1-18

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … What had come to be in him was life and light of all people. The light and life shine in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it … to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born … of God. And the Word lives among us … From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace …”

Reflection

Christmas day culminates our personal preparations in Advent. It also often marks the end of shopping, parties, wrapping gifts and mailing them, cooking meals and cleaning the house for company, preparing liturgies and decorating.

We can feel a sense of relief at Christmas Day’s end that all work and hustle-bustle is behind us. We rejoice in the good and relax at last. Our work is done!

Is our work done or is Christmas when it begins renewed? Or is this the time we more fully move into the word made flesh within us and alive among us?

The Word becoming flesh and living among us is, yes, about Jesus, who enfleshed peace, gentleness, compassion, nonviolence, generosity and forgiveness.

Yet, is it not also about us, receiving grace upon grace, life and light as children of God, born of God, to enflesh the same as Jesus? Peace, compassion, nonviolence, forgiveness.

We have all experienced, I hope, the enfleshment of God in loving, in caring for another and being cared for, in finding peace and calm in difficult times. And in many other ways.

Howard Thurman, theologian philosopher, educator, Christian mystic, and civil rights’ leader, invites us to the work of Christmas:

“When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among brothers (and sisters),

To make music in the heart.”

Action

The Word with God was and always will be. Light doesn’t extinguish the darkness as God enters the darkness with us as witness, advocate and presence.

How will we live the Word made flesh in our daily lives? How will we live and be the work of Christmas daily?

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Sister Barbara Sheehan

Sister Barbara Sheehan

Sister Barbara Sheehan, SP, a Sister of Providence since 1960, lives in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods after several years in Chicago, where she ministered as Executive Director/ACPE Supervisor of the Urban Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium, Inc. and as a spiritual director. She has extensive training not only in clinical pastoral supervision but also in care with those sexually abused, those challenged with mental illness and those suffering trauma. She has offered many workshops at regional, national and international conferences, is the author of Partner in Covenant: The Art of Spiritual Companionship and of numerous articles including one of her latest, Formation For Professional Practice: Addressing Social Hurts" in Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry, Vol. 34 2014.

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