Christmas today

We are all awaiting Christmas, but let us remember too that at every Holy Mass Jesus is born on earth. Today we await the commemoration of the memorial of his birth, but on the altar we have the real presence of God every single day!

It is on the altar that, instead of swaddling clothes, he wraps himself in a small white host. The corporal and the altar cloth are like hay, and the altar like a manger! And the sanctuary like a stable! Two thousand years ago the infinite God became man. That is great humility and self-abasement. Today, during the Eucharist, that God-Man takes the form of bread. Then he was a Child, now he becomes bread! Then he was in the hands of Mary and Joseph, now in the hands of a priest!

Once the Son of God became man, took the form of a child and grew in a woman's womb. He was defenceless and given over to a hard lot. Today at Holy Mass, at the words of the priest, he becomes present among us once more. This time he does not need Mary's consent, but the ministry of a priest! St Jerome wrote that priests give birth to Jesus with their lips, as they pronounce the words of consecration!

So let us fall on our knees in faith before the Divine Child when, born of the words of the priest, he comes upon the altar! Let us kneel in reverence before we receive the holy Host in which our God is hidden! May Holy Communion be the most beautiful Christmas within us!

„And we too await you, our Lord. And when you come at the voice of the priest, we shall fall on our faces before you, knowing that you are hidden under the veil of bread and wine.”