Christmas is a day that changed the whole course of creation. In the beginning, God created a perfect world, with no defect. But through human sin, suffering and death entered the world. Human sin created a wedge between God and humanity, cutting the human race off from the grace of God. But God did abandon humanity in our brokenness. Right after the fall of the human race, God promised the coming of the Savior, who would redeem the fallen world.
The celebration of Christmas has four different Masses, each with its own readings - the Vigil Mass, the Mass During the Night, the Mass at Dawn, and the Mass During the Day. In the Gospel passage for the Vigil Mass, we see the genealogy of Jesus from the time of Abraham. The passage shows the centuries of preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. In fact, the entirety of the Old Testament period is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. Contemporary Christian readers are often puzzled by some of the contents of the Old Testament. But everything falls into place if we approach those texts through the lens of the New Testament, through the Gospel message of Christ.
Read more...