9781644135945

The Light of the World
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the new birth in the flesh of Thy only-begotten Son
may set us free, whom the old bondage doth hold under the yoke of sin. Amen.
Christmas (2)
In the second Mass on Christmas the liturgy directs our attention to the crib of the Savior. “A
light shall shine upon us this day, for the Lord is born to us; and He shall be called Wonderful,
God, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the world to come; of whose reign there shall be no end.
The Lord hath reigned, He is clothed with beauty; the Lord is clothed with strength and hath
girded Himself ” (Introit of the second Mass).
With our gaze fixed on the crib which has become the throne of the God-man, we rejoice in the
words of the Apostle: “For we ourselves also were some time unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves
to diverse desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Ti
3:3). “And you, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit
that now worketh on the children of unbelief; in which also we all conversed in time past, in
the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature
children of wrath, even as the rest” (Eph 2:1–3). We were all of us at one time unredeemed, far
from God, separated from Christ, and wanting the grace and sonship of God.
“But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared, not by the works
of justice which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the laver of
regeneration and the renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom He hath poured forth upon us
abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by His grace, we may be
heirs according to hope of life everlasting” (Ti 3:4–7; Epistle of the second Mass). We are
redeemed. That is the glad tidings which the Savior has brought us through His Incarnation
and birth of the Virgin Mary.
We are redeemed. This redemption is accomplished through Christ Jesus, the infant in the crib.
He has won for us all the benefits of the redemption. We have only to believe in Him, think of
Him, and unite ourselves to Him. Because of His great mercy, God has delivered us from the
reign of the powers of darkness — from sin, the tyranny of passion, Satan, and hell — and has
made us coheirs of the kingdom of His divine Son, “in whom we have redemption through His
blood, the remission of sins” (Col 1:14).
The chains by which Satan held us captive have been broken, and we have escaped from
his power. We have become incorporated into the kingdom of the Son of God and entitled
to the fruits of the redemption. Among these fruits are the possession of truth and grace, the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls, the love of God, and complete incorporation into
Christ and His Church. By means of the redemption we may now take part in the life of the
vine which is Christ, and we have the assurance of our eventual resurrection and the possession
of eternal life. All these things are now ours, brought to us by the child in the crib, not because
of our good works, but because of His great mercy. “By this hath the charity of God appeared
towards us, because God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we may live by
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