the Best Gift

The second Christmas Preface reads:

Today You fill our hearts with joy as we recognize in Christ the revelation of Your love. No eye can see His glory as God, yet now He is one like us. Christ is Your Son before all ages, yet now He is born in time. He has come to lift up all things to Himself, to restore unity to creation, and to lead mankind from exile into Your heavenly kingdom.

Pope Benedict preached the following in his Inaugural homily:

[Jesus] leaps to His feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the Cross. He takes it upon His shoulders and carries our humanity; He carries us all…

During this season of Christmas it is easy for us to lose sight Christ for a variety of reasons. But during this season of Christmas we must work to people who give thanks for God and the birth of Jesus. The description of Jesus leaping to His feet and landing in the womb of Mary to walk ultimately to the Cross is the best gift. It is the gift that we MOST need.

This season should inspire us to act as Christ. Pope Benedict closed the homily with these words:

Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and He gives you everything. When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundred fold in return.