The Word became flesh: Is 52, Hebr 1, and the Prologue of John at the Nativity of the Lord

**Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis.***And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.* (John 1:14)In the Mass of the Day, Christmas celebrates the Lord’s Nativity through three texts that offer complementary perspectives on the mystery of the Incarnation. Isaiah 52:7-10 sings of the joy announced by the messenger of peace and salvation, seen by all the ends of the earth. Hebrews 1:1-6 proclaims that God, having spoken formerly through prophets in many ways, now speaks to us through the Son: the splendor of his glory and the very expression of his substance. John 1:1-18 offers the Prologue, which is both the beginning and the key to the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. The three readings describe the same event from three distinct angles: prophetic announcement, doctrinal confession, and theological contemplation.**I. The first reading: Isaiah 52:7-10**Isaiah sings of the good news with a beautiful physical image: “How wonderful are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion: ‘Your God reigns’!” (Is 52:7). The sentinels raise their voices in unison and sing for joy because they see with their own eyes the Lord returning to Zion (v.8). The ruins of Jerusalem burst into song because the Lord has comforted his people, redeemed Jerusalem (v.9). “The Lord has made bare his holy arm before all nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (v.10). Isaiah’s vision is universal: salvation is not only for Israel. The “holy arm” of the Lord that is revealed is the power of God at work in history. At Christmas, this arm becomes childlike arms that Mary presents to the world.**II. The second reading: Hebrews 1:1-6**The Letter to the Hebrews opens with a statement that summarizes the entire history of revelation: “God, who spoke in the past through various prophets at different times, has now spoken to us in these last days through his Son” (Heb 1:1-2a). The Son is described in a series of increasing affirmations: heir of all things, by whom he created the worlds (v.2b), splendor of his glory and expression of his substance, upholding the universe with the word of his power (v.3). Then comes the redemptive work: after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (v.3b). He is superior to angels (v.4), and God never addressed any angel as “My Son, whom I have begotten” (v.5). The Letter to Hebrews opens Christmas with the greatest question: who is this child? The answer lies in the hymn of his pre-existence and greatness that precedes birth and is revealed through birth.**III. The gospel: John 1:1-18**In the Gospel of John’s Prologue, the narrative does not commence with a birth but with an inception: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). Creation is the work of the Word; everything was made through him, and without him nothing was made (v.3). The Word is life, and life is the light for humanity (v.4). This light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (v.5). John the Baptist came as a witness to this light (vv.6-8). The Word came to what was His own, but His own did not receive Him (v.11). Yet, to those who received him, he gave the power to become children of God, believers in his name (v.12). And then the central verse of Christmas: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (v.14). Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (v.17). The Prologue moves from eternity to time, from the invisible to the visible, from the divine to the human. Christmas is the moment when eternity becomes time, and the invisible becomes visible.## IV. Mary and the Word that became flesh“The Word became flesh,” this phrase from John 1:14 implies a flesh from which the Word took humanity. This flesh is Mary’s. Christian tradition has expressed this mystery through the title defined by the Council of Ephesus (431) as a dogma of faith: Mary is “Theotokos,” Mother of God. The title does not exalt Mary for her own sake; it exalts the Incarnation. To say that Mary is Mother of God is to affirm that the son she bore is God—the same affirmation made by John’s Prologue and the Letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews 1 describes the Son as “the radiance of the glory of God”: this radiance first shone in Mary’s womb, which was the first place where the Son of God dwelt humanly. Isaiah 52 sings of the beauty of the messenger’s feet who brings good news: Mary, who carried the incarnate Word to Elizabeth’s house during the Visitation, was literally the bearer of the good news in flesh. The feet Isaiah sings about are Mary’s pregnant feet, trodden upon the mountains of Judah. Christmas is not merely the birth of Jesus; it is the birth of Mary as Mother of God, the fulfillment of her unique vocation, and the inauguration of a role that will never end.