Sunday, December 25 : Saint Basil

God on earth, God amongst men! It is no longer the God who gives out his law with lightning and thunder, at the sound of the trumpet, on the mountain wrapped in smoke (Ex 19,18), but he is the one who converses gently and kindly, in a human body, with his kin brothers. God in our flesh!… How did the light come into all? How can the divinity be present in flesh? Just as fire comes into iron,…by spreading. Without changing place or nature, fire may convey to iron its energy. And by doing so it does not lose its strength, nor is it diminished, but it completely fills the iron with which it conveys. In the same way God, the Word who “made his dwelling among us”, did not quit himself; the Word that became flesh did not undergo changes, the heavens were not deprived of the one who contained them… Enter fully into this mystery: God has come into flesh in order to kill the death that was hidden in it. As drugs cure us once they are assimilated by our body, as the darkness of a house is dispersed once the light comes in, in the same way, the death that kept us in his power has been destroyed by the coming of our God. As the ice, which is formed during the night, melts in the day with the heat of the sunrays, in the same way, death reigned till the coming of Christ. But when the Sun of justice rose, death was swallowed up in victory (1Cor 15,54); it could not stand the presence of the real life… Let us sing glory to God with the shepherds, let us dance together with the angels, “for this day in David’s city a Savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2,11)…Let us celebrate the salvation of the world, the day of birth of humanity.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team