Sermons of SFS for Advent & Chirstmas

Christmas Midnight Mass, 1622. [Delivered three days before his death]

The greatest solemnities of the Ecclesial Calendar (Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) have originated from the feast of the Passover [passage, Pasch] which was observed in the old Law [Ex. 12/11] Christmas commemorates the Lord’s passage from His Divinity to our humanity. Holy Week and Easter marks the Lord’s passage from His Passion and death to His Resurrection. Pentecost marks the day when the Lord adopted the Gentiles [Acts 2/17, 39] and permitted them to pass from infidelity to the happiness of becoming His well-beloved children. All these feasts have their source in the Incarnation.

“I like to use analogies when I preach”

The size, lay-out, quality of materials and plans of a house will depend on the status of the person who will reside therein. The Eternal Father, when he built this world intended to create it for the Incarnation of His Son, the Eternal Word [cf TLG II, chs. 4 and 5] since he ordained from all eternity that His Word would assume our nature . This was his intent even before Lucifer and the world were created and before the sin of our first parents. Further, the Word created Mary and was Himself born of her. Indeed, it is like the bee that makes honey and honey that ‘makes’ the bee, for one is never visualized without the other – the bee and honey.

At His birth the Lord’s divinity is highlighted n the fact that the Angels descend from heaven to announce the Nativity to the shepherds [Lk. 2/8-14] At the same time, the reality of the manger proves that this Divinity was truly human.

Consider God’s goodness: Had he so desired He could have created His Son’s humanity as He did that of our first parents, or even given Him an angelic nature. In this case, Jesus would not have been of our nature, and we would not have had this special link with Him. However, His goodness was such that He made Himself our brother in order that He might give us an example [Rom. 8/29; Heb. 2/11-17] and render us sharers in His glory, by coming to earth as Abraham’s seed. [Lk. 1/55; Rom. 1/3; Gal. 3/16]