In the early hours of Christmas Day, after joyous crowds had filled the church for Mass the night before, a number of believers return. They hear one of the most sublime passages in the Bible, the prologue to John’s Gospel. It answers two questions: Who is Christ? Who are you?
Jesus existed before his birth at Bethlehem. As the eternal Word, he was with the Father from the beginning: the creation of the world, the burgeoning of life, and the birth of light.
He was there.
Then he came here. The Word became flesh. He entered human history. He walked among the people he had created, and many did not know him. Some did believe in him. John’s prologue says of those people—and of us—that they “were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.”
You were born by natural generation; your parents gave you life. You were born by human choice; you chose some directions for your life. You were born by someone’s decision; you accepted a task not of your own choosing. Who you are is determined by birth, by choice, and by decision.
Yet you are something more: You are born of God.
Who is Christ? He is the eternal One whose birth in time we celebrate on Christmas Day.
Who are you? You are a believer. Therefore, you are one born of God.
Merry Christmas to you.
