Consider what people regard as their favorite part of Christmas traditions. Perhaps it is the gifts or the food or time with family. For many, it is the songs. There is something about these hymns, the way they fill us with an age-old, deeply human joy. There is a joy in these songs that we hunger for. It may not even be a joy we completely feel, but they still fill our hearts with longing.

The joy of these Christmas songs is the joy of a people who gather together to celebrate the most astounding of truths: God came to earth as a baby. The God who created the stars and holds them in place, the God who holds all the universe in being, this mighty one ... came to dwell with us as a tiny infant. And this fact would have been inconceivable to the polytheistic ancient near east. And even for God's chosen people, bound in covenant with the Lord and familiar with his many messengers, this would have been a radical assertion.
The joy of our song today, the depth of our prayer, the richness of our celebration – all constitute an invitation to enter into the astonishment and mystery that God became a baby.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.
This is the God of whom we speak. Through him all things came to be. What power and majesty these words suggest – our imaginations can barely begin to approach the truth. But today we are invited to try. In our song, in the quiet moments of this Mass, in our celebrations or whatever activities we engage in today, can we allow our imaginations to wrestle with the glory of God? And then, as we behold the grandeur of God which changes all the world, can we consider the smallness of a baby?

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
This is the miracle of our salvation. God does not simply tell us what to do so we can make our way to heaven. God comes down to us to lead us there. God enters into our humanity – the weakness, the need and discomfort, the heartache and suffering, the joy and hope. God enters in. He finds us here. He comes to save us.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of goodwill.

(Fr. Michał Pająk, OMI, Dec. 25, 2025)