Jesus Christ is born for us. Jesus Christ dies for us. Jesus Christ conquers death and rises again for us. Because of our place in time, December 27, 2025 AD – Anno Domini, In the year of our Lord, we are capable of experiencing his life, suffering, death, Resurrection, and Ascension into Heaven. The important question we need to answer is, “Does this new fact, this new reality in human history, make a real difference in our lives?”
Christmas did not end two days ago. We are still in the Octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates two octaves in the Church liturgical calendars, Christmas and Easter. These eight days are celebrated to impress on us the solemnity of the event of remembrance. From the vigil celebration of Christmas Eve on December 24 to January 1, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, we celebrate the significant event of the Incarnation, the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, becoming one with us in human history.
“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The Masses celebrated within the Octave of Christmas, as well as the readings of Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, reflect the celebration of Christmas Day each day for the eight days. It is like having a week-long birthday party. More importantly, we are invited to meditate and ponder this wonderful gift, that God has come close to dwell among us.
If we are solely focused on gifts, the returning of gifts, and celebrations apart from the celebration of Jesus’ birth; if we are removed from the liturgical cycle and rhythm of the Church, it is easy to fall into the daily harried pace again and post-Christmas blues may creep in because it can feel like everything is done but the returning of gifts and getting a good after Christmas deal. Christmas music has been alive and well on many radio channels for weeks, but at some point on Christmas Day and often the following day, they stop. They stop at the time when they ought to begin!
The material and finite, no matter how wonderful, even our closest relationships, will never satisfy our deepest hunger and thirst. If you are experiencing any post-Christmas blues, today is a great opportunity to let go of the material for a bit and enter into the gift of silence, and to spend some time meditating and contemplating on who will satisfy our deepest longing. The greatest gift that we have been given, we began to celebrate again two days ago.
The Son of God changed human history through his conception and birth and we are invited to participate in God’s great theodrama of human transformation. Today’s Gospel reading is a fast forward from this birth we are celebrating and the gift that keeps on giving, the reality of the purpose of the incarnation.
Jesus was born to die. He obeyed and trusted his Father at every stage of his life, even in the garden and on the cross. He died and experienced our greatest fear: death. That Mary, Peter, and John, “saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place” was not just a random detail. Grave robbers would not have taken his body without the cloths of the corpse. When Lazarus was called out of his tomb, he shuffled out still tied in his burial cloths and his head still covered. Lazarus was resuscitated but would die again. “Something radically different has happened to Jesus” (Martin and Wright, 333).
The Holy Spirt overshadowed Mary at Jesus’ conception, helped Jesus conquer death and rise again, and through the Holy Spirit again, Jesus is made present through the priest at each celebration of the Mass. Mary Magdalene was the first to experience the empty tomb and shared this good news with the apostles. Peter and John ran to see. John arrived first. John remained outside, possibly out of respect, to allow Peter to go first. Peter saw the empty tomb except for the burial clothes. When John entered, “he saw and believed” (Jn 20:8).
Are we willing to take the time to ponder as John did? To pause and to be still. To allow God to speak to us in the silence of our hearts? John, Mary, and Peter’s lives were changed and transformed because they encountered Jesus, and no matter the challenge, gave their lives to him. We are invited to do the same. We were created to be in relationship with Jesus and our hearts will be restless until we allow ourselves to slow down, embrace the gift of silence, be led by the Holy Spirit, and so that in his presence in the Eucharist, we too may experience him, see, and believe.
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Painting: St. John stained glass window from Holy Cross CC, Vero Beach, FL
Spiritual Stepping Stones 