Scripture Study for

The Nativity of the Lord - Mass During the Day

Understanding the Word

By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

The proclamation of good news from Isaiah is dramatically portrayed in several  ways. It begins with a sketch of a messenger running swiftly over the mountains  with the message of peace and salvation. The people to whom the messenger  runs have been desolate for so long, waiting for a ray of hope. The messenger  announces that God has won victory and the people can now begin anew. Then  the very ruins of the city are called on to break forth in song. Peace is no longer  a hoped-for dream, nor is salvation only a promise for the future. They are now  accomplished facts for which to rejoice. 

The confessional hymn celebrated in the reading from Hebrews proclaims that  Christ is the agent of revelation, creation, and salvation. It begins with a comparison of the ways that God communicates with humankind. In the past, God spoke  to the ancestors through the prophets; in the present, God speaks a definitive  word to the believers through God’s own Son. Since this Son is also the Wisdom  of God, it stands to reason that he would be superior even to the angels. As the  agent of salvation, he sits enthroned in the place of greatest honor, at the right hand of God.  

The Gospel of John begins with one of the most profound statements about  Jesus found in the entire New Testament. Its lofty Christology is comparable to  that found in the reading from Hebrews. Both characterize Christ as preexistent  and as an agent in the creation of the world. However, the Word of God, who  is also the holiness of God and the wisdom of God, now dwells in the midst of  humankind. While the Word is the true light that comes into the world, John is  merely the witness who testifies to the authenticity and superiority of this light.  Women and men have been transformed by the love that first prompted God’s  revelation and Christ’s incarnation. 

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