The Nativity - Birth of Jesus, Christmas lived in spirit and in truth
The Nativity - Birth of Jesus, Christmas lived in spirit and in truth
Spiritual meaning of the Birth of Jesus The Word of God, that is the same spirit of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word; (John 1:14) came down from heaven to the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Luke 1:35), to start his work of redemption of all mankind.
It was necessary that God himself in the person of the Son, God and man, would pay for the sins of all mankind, which he accomplished with his death on the cross.
God is born in Mary first, he is embodied in her (Luke 1:35), this is how the hypostatic union of God with man takes place. Then Jesus with his death on the cross becomes the new Adam and He declares the Blessed Virgin Mary the New Eve, when he names her the mother of all the Sons of God in grace, (John 19:27) first in the person of John the beloved apostle to whom he says "Behold your mother."
(John 1:11-12) Jesus (The Word of God) came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.
We have the power to become children of God with our faith in Christ. As children of God, we are his chosen people in grace, we are privileged to receive Jesus in our hearts through the Holy Eucharist.
When we receive him, we are receiving the Word, or the Spirit of God, we are also receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, true God and true man, our Savior.
To accept Christ, is being born again from above (John 3: 3), to live in Christ is becoming bearers of the Word which is the Spirit, and bearers of his body and blood that cleanses us from sin.
During the Mass a spiritual birth of Christ takes place on the altar through the hands of the Priest. Christ in His omnipresence transcends time, matter and space, he is truly present on the altar when he is lifted up and this way he becomes food for our souls. (Mark 14: 22-24) When we receive him, Christ is born again in us, so the birth of Jesus is repeated in every heart in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
¿And how is our Lord born? Just as he was born in the midst of contempt from a people who did not open the doors to the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph when they were looking in the inn (Luke 2: 7) So Christ comes to the heart of those who accept him in his sacramental form and offer their lives as his dwelling. Being King he would deserve a very opulent place full of splendor, but the Kingship of Christ is in a humble way, he comes to the little ones who have a humbled and contrite heart.
This is the reason why He enters the coldness of our heart; he was born in a cave, a cold manger, a place outside the city, a poor place. Our heart is like a very secret place, a cave where the Lord of the Universe comes to live, a cold place because of our indifference, since we do not welcome Him warmly as He deserves and forget his presence. When our heart is a place away from the world, we find ourselves alone with Jesus, far away from the world. The heart is a poor place when it is clear of all attachments to this world so that we can receive our King in that poverty.
It is a place where he comes to reign as King of Kings, Lord of Lords and, as in the manger; there is also the Blessed Virgin Mary where she also reigns in our lives. For that union of Christ with us, leads us to accept this new Adam and the new Eve, our parents in Grace and thus is formed in us the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
The sanctifying grace of the Sacraments gives us faith, hope and love that keep us in the presence of Christ in our lives.
And full of Christ we can someday say as St. Paul, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
If Christ lives in me, which is true when I accept him and receive him sacramentally, I also have to do what Mary did, I have to give birth to Christ, for having him inside is like being pregnant with his presence and Christ must be born out of us to others.
When we are filled with His light and shine it to others (Matthew 5:14) in our good works, we are making Christ be born again before others as the light of the world.
Then the birth of Jesus, not only refers to that event more than two thousand years ago, Jesus must be born spiritually, live and reign in every heart.
Promise and birth of Jesus the Savior Mankind had offended God to the point of needing to be rescued from eternal punishment caused by sin. It all started with Adam and Eve our first parents, who offended God, but received the promise of salvation.
In the Book of Genesis [Genesis 3:15], the Protoevangelium tells us that God foretold the serpent [the devil] to be crushed by the woman [the Virgin Mary] whose heel would be bruised [Our Lord with his passion and death].
God foretold enmity between the woman (Mary) and the devil, between her seed (her Son Jesus) and the devil’s seed, between Jesus and his new children [the children of God in grace] and the snake with all her children, that is the devil and all those who reject God and become his children.
Revelation chapter twelve, verse seventeen says[Revelation 12:17] Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.
In other words God promised to send a woman whose son would be our Savior because by his death he would defeat the devil. [Genesis 3:15]
The Lord said to Moses, in [Deuteronomy 18:15-18-19]
15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.
19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.
So if someone rejects the Lord, he will be cut off from God's people. Other prophets received the message of the coming of the Messiah, who would liberate God's people from the slavery of other nations.
Through the prophet Micah, [Micah 5: 2-5] was revealed that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, He would be a mighty king and a shepherd, who would bring peace to the nations.
Well, the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call him Emmanuel. [Isaiah 7:14] This maiden is the Virgin Mary who conceived by the grace of the Holy Spirit His Son Jesus who is Emmanuel , which means "God with us".
Because a child is born to us, a son is given us, authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named "Wo nderful Counselor," "Mighty God," "Eternal Father," "Prince of Peace" [Isaiah 9:6]
The reason for his coming In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1: 1]
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. [John 1:14]
Jesus came to restore our souls to the immortality we lost in Paradise through the sin of our first parents. During His ministry He healed the sick to prove that He had the power to forgive sins and to show us his Merciful Love. He also came to teach us the wisdom of God, the Way of Salvation, the Imitation of his life and that we should follow him.
[Isaiah 53:11] Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction, [1] through his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous [2], and he shall bear their iniquities. [3]
Let us examine this passage that sums up the work of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1 Out of his anguish he shall see light; it means by the fatigues of his soul, his light will shine.
The work of our redemption involved the death of Jesus on the cross. He had to satisfy Divine Justice giving his life for our lives. So because of the merits of his holy sacrifice, by his stripes we are healed from the wounds of our sins. He could see the result of his mission when he said at the last moment "Everything is accomplished"
2 through his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous:
Jesus is the Word of God made flesh; He is the second person of the Holy Trinity. He is the wisdom of God who came to be shared with us, so becoming the way to the Father. The Gospels are the teachings of Christ and lead us to salvation. We are justified believing in Jesus Christ, indeed this is the Work of God; that we believe in him whom God has sent. His Son our Lord Jesus Christ [John 6:29]
3 And he shall bear their iniquities
By his passion, agony and death, Jesus suffered for our sins. He received upon himself the punishment due for our sins because "He is the Love of God made man" who loves us in such a merciful way that is impossible to understand. By his holy wounds we are healed [Read Isaiah Chapter 53]
Jesus came to be the Good Shepherd according to the prediction made by the Lord God: I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep [Ezekiel 34:15];
Jesus says: I am the Good Shepherd [John 10: 11-14]
[Philippians 2.10-11] 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven, on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
How Jesus was born [Luke 1: 26-56 Luke 2: 1-21] In summary the Virgin Mary received the visitation of the Archangel Gabriel who told her:
Hail Mary, full of grace [which means full of God's favor], do not be afraid, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. You shall conceive a son who will be great, he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give him the throne of his father David. Then the angel explained to Mary since she was a virgin: The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy, He will be called Son of God.
Mary said, let it be done to me according to your word, and at that moment became the Mother of God.
Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph, but before they were married she was pregnant. Joseph wanted to divorce her quietly to avoid unnecessary publicity but an angel came in his dreams and revealed that her son had been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and his name would be Jesus, the Savior of Mankind.
The baby was born on a starry night; the angels came to the world and rejoiced at his birth singing Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will. They directed some shepherds to the site of the Birth of the Child Jesus.
Three Magi came from the East to pay homage to Our Savior; they were guided by a star.
The Savior of the world was born in a manger, a dark cave because his poor parents could not find a place where to spend the night; all doors were closed to the mother about to give birth and to her son. When the Lord was born, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger, surrounded by an ox and a donkey, which with their breath warmed the baby.
His coming was not welcome, except for the poor and the humble. Our humble Savior was unknown to the world until he began to perform miracles, this caused the learned Pharisees and the priests of his time to be filled with jealousy and later they sentenced him to die on the cross for having said that he was the Son of God.
How should we celebrate Christmas The Savior of the world was born more than two thousand years ago. His coming was a historical event of such magnitude that the modern world began its calendar year on his birth.
This was a very important event because no man like him had existed before, full of power, wisdom and love, but also because He was the Son of God, the awaited Messiah, the Redeemer, the Anointed of God.
His coming to the world attracted followers who are those destined to be saved. For the humble, the poor and the marginalized, Jesus is the man!
People from all walks of life are invited to follow Jesus on his way to our heavenly home.
When we remember the coming of our Lord in the season of Advent and Christmas, we are celebrating our deliverance from the bondage of sin, because Jesus is our Savior. We also welcome his future coming in glory as He has promised.
Christmas Day is the day of the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, one day to praise God for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life [John 3:16]
Christmas day is really a "holy day, a religious festival", unfortunately the world has replaced this holy day for a worldly feast.
The word Christmas in English [Christmas] has two parts, “Christ and mas” but it has been replaced by the word Xmas, so it crosses out the name of Christ, it removes the name of Christ, not to honor him at Christmas, because we have removed the word. And Christ has also been removed in many other ways.
We should recollect ourselves especially during Christmas time and celebrate the gift we have received thanking God for the gift of His Son, loving each other and sharing our love with others.
Another point we need to clarify is that Santa Claus or St. Nicholas is not the main event of Christmas, the holy day has been replaced with an opportunity to sell, and this holy time has been marketed and uses Santa Claus to distribute gifts forgetting in many cases of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Watch out" Christ is coming soon.
Some might insist that it is too late to change the tradition, It could be. But where is this world coming to? We are forgetting to give God what is God’s because we are so happy doing things for us.
Many people throughout the world have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas because of new traditions. The Birth of Christ was replaced by the new Christmas [Xmas], a pagan celebration that has nothing to do with the Lord.
Let us include Jesus in our lives this Christmas and find out what we have been created for. Let's thank God for sending His Son to save us; we celebrate not only his birth but also his death which truly saves us from the death of sin. Let us ponder the coming of the Savior of the world and live forever.
Let's make every day of our lives a true Christmas where Jesus is born not in a cold cave of Bethlehem but in our hearts. Let us welcome and love Jesus with all our heart, mind and with all our strength.
And to more this beautiful time every year, let us do a Novena to the Child Jesus.
Let us allow Christ to be born again in our lives and let us be born again to eternal life.
Jesus loves you.
Have a Holy Christmas!
Nativity - Birth of Jesus the Savior - Spiritual meaning
