The Gospel of Yes Daily Reflection for Dec. 25, 2023
DECEMBER 25, 2023
CHRISTMAS DAY
A YES THAT ENDS IN JOY
OPENING PRAYER:
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. I welcome you into my heart as Mary did. Come with power. Help me to offer my own yes to God the Father, saying with trust: “May it be done unto me according to your word.”
TODAY’S THOUGHT:
Merry Christmas!
On the final day of our reflections, let's return quickly to the very first day (December 3):
Abandon yourself completely into the hands of God, and take directly from him every event of life, agreeable or disagreeable… He would like you to place yourself in his hands entirely, giving him full permission to do what he likes with you.
"To make this amazingly generous yes, we need to be turned towards the Lord. To be gazing at him. To see his beauty." (1)
We began our reflections with Mary, turning our gaze to the Lord. Only when we are overwhelmed by his beauty, goodness, and truth will our Christian life become more of a yes to the Lord than just a no to sin.
On the final day of our reflections, we join Mary again in looking upon the face of our Savior. Mary's yes started with her heart turned to the Lord, already seeking his face. And the fruit of that yes is what we celebrate today: Mary looking at the face of her newborn child, the Son of God.
Mary's yes ended in the joy of that moment when she first looked upon the face of God and welcomed his eyes looking back on her. Although there would be great suffering in the years that would follow, it all ended in the Resurrection. Mary, assumed into heaven, now enjoys the gift of looking upon her son forever in joy.
This same joy is offered to all who say yes to God:
"Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2)
We call this eternal gaze the Beatific Vision:
Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision":
"How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God's friends." (St. Cyprian)
Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1028
The beatific vision is the ultimate union with God. It is the fullness of love. It is the fullness of joy. Mary had a foretaste of that in the moment when she first held her newborn son and looked upon his face. But now she experiences it fully.
We were made to share in this eternal blessing as well. Our hearts were made with this prayer inscribed within us:
"May God be gracious to us and bless us; may his face shine upon us." (Psalm 67:1)
It all begins when we offer our yes to the Lord. So, on this Christmas Day, as we contemplate Mary gazing upon the face of her son, do not be afraid to give your yes to the Lord, that one day you too may join Mary in beholding the face of God eternally.
TODAY’S PRAYER:
Offer Psalm 67, a psalm of joy containing a prayer asking for divine blessings, that all the nations may praise God.
Psalm 67
For the Choirmaster. With string instruments. A Psalm. A Song.
O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your salvation.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and shout for joy,
with uprightness you rule the peoples;
you guide the nations on earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us.
May God still give us his blessing
that all the ends of the earth may revere him.
FOR YOUR REFLECTION:
Gheritt van Honthorst, Adorazione del Bambino c.1620
Gerrit van Honthorst was born in Utrecht (Netherlands) in 1592 to a large Catholic family. Honthorst traveled to Rome in his early twenties, a trip that had an indelible impact on his painting style. In particular, Honthorst was influenced by the great Italian master Caravaggio and would adopt the painter’s realism, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, and bold colors. Honthorst used lighting in dramatic ways, creating distinctive nocturnal settings and artificial lighting effects that attracted patrons to his work.
Here, in the Adoration of the Child, we see his dramatic use of light at play on the canvas. Notice that the source of light is the baby Jesus himself. The light does not come from above or from a candle or lamp nearby. It is the child himself who is "the Light of the World." (John 8:12) From the divine child radiates a light that bathes the faces of all those adoring him.
Notice the look of joy on each of the four faces that gaze upon the child. The two angels, whose wings are seen in the dark background behind them, smile with joyful reverence. Their hands are held in prayer as their faces are illuminated by the newborn Savior. In the background, behind Mary, we see Joseph. With staff in hand, he leans over, a content smile seen behind his beard and visible in the wrinkles on his brow. Mary's face is peaceful, her lips slightly turned up in a simple smile as she gazes down. She holds the corners of the blanket, revealing the child to the angels. This is one of Mary's spiritual roles: to reveal and make known her son.
As we celebrate Christmas Day, remember that the joy of this day continues for us in the Sacraments when Christ makes himself present to us. He is still Emmanuel, God-With-Us. It is especially in the Eucharist that we get to experience his closeness and the intimacy of his love. And it is in Eucharistic Adoration that we can gaze on the Word Made Flesh.
"And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary as she contemplated the face of the newborn Christ and cradled him in her arms that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us every time we receive Eucharistic communion?" (2)
The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk 2:7).
Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). (3)
As we end our reflections, offer your yes to the Lord with Mary, using one of the Prayers of Surrender and Abandonment to God.
Merry Christmas!
William Doyle and Patrick Kenny, To Raise the Fallen: A Selection of the War Letters, Prayers and Spiritual Writings of Fr Willie Doyle SJ (Dublin: Veritas Publications, 2020), 125-126.
Pope John Paul II. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, #55.
Pope John Paul II, Rosarium Virginia Mariae. #10.