Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jeremiah 23,5-8
Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall raise an upright Branch for David; he will reign as king and be wise, doing what is just and upright in the country. In his days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name he will be called, 'Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice.' " 'So, look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yahweh lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt," but, "As Yahweh lives who led back and brought home the offspring of the House of Israel from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them, to live on their own soil." '
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After having given a stern warning to the leaders who by betraying the Lord's flock have also betrayed him, the Lord assures his people through the voice of his prophet that he himself will come down to gather his flock and bring them to pasture from which they have been driven. "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch." At Christmas, the prophet's proclamation reaches its fulfilment. Yes, the days of which Jeremiah speaks are the days in which we live. Now is the time when the Lord will give the world a "branch" who will reign over the earth with authority and establish justice and righteousness. The Son of God himself has been sent to earth. He appears as a child, truly a "branch" who does not impose himself with outer strength or any attributes of human power. Indeed, he appears as a weak child who is not even born in a house like everyone else. He is born in a cave outside of the city and laid in a manger, as Matthew's Gospel reminds us today (1:18-24). The strength of this branch comes entirely from the boundless love that drove him to come down from heaven and which will drive him to walk through the streets and squares of his time to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom. The Lord reigns from the human heart. This is why Christmas comes back again and again every year. We need it, given our forgetfulness and how we remain closed in on ourselves. An ancient Christian thinker said: "If Christ were born in Bethlehem a thousand times, but never in your heart, you would be lost forever." The Lord keeps knocking to enter our hearts: his birth renews them, widens them, makes them strong with love, and illuminates them so they can travel to the periphery of our world. A heart renewed by Christmas can give birth to a new earth, a new history, and a more lasting peace.