Good morning, everyone! And a continued, joyful, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Are we done yet? Have we packed up the celebration? Have we taken down the lights in our hearts because the calendar flipped to a new year? I hope not! Because today, the Church leans in and says, “Wait. Don’t move. You haven’t seen the whole picture yet. You’ve seen the baby… but do you know who He is?”

Today, we don’t get shepherds or angels or a star over Bethlehem. Today, St. John takes us on a rocket ship of revelation, straight past the manger, past history, past time itself! He pulls us right up to the edge of eternity and says, “Look. Before that… was THIS.”

“In the beginning was the Word.” Not “once upon a time.” In THE beginning. The beginning of everything. The moment God said, “Let there be light,” He said it through someone. That someone was the WORD. And John makes this earth-shattering, universe-altering claim: This Word wasn’t just with God. This Word WAS God.

Let that crash over you! The baby whose diaper Mary changed… is the One who hung the stars in place. The toddler who learned to walk… is the One who laid the foundations of the earth. The carpenter from Nazareth… His workshop was the cosmos! He shaped the mountains! He carved the canyons! He breathed life into every living creature!

This is the staggering truth of Christmas we almost miss when we only see the swaddling clothes. We’re not just celebrating a holy birth. We’re celebrating the invasion of eternity into time! The Creator stepping into His creation!

And why? Why would He do this? Love. But not a distant, theoretical love. A passionate, pursuing, “I’ve-got-to-get-there” kind of love.

John says it with words that should make us gasp: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

“Became flesh.” God didn’t just put on a human suit. He didn’t project a hologram. He became. He took on our DNA, our tiredness, our hunger, our joy, our tears. He entered the mess and the beauty of being human.

And “dwelt among us”? The Greek word is skēnoō. It means He TABERNACLED with us. He pitched His tent in our neighborhood! In the Old Testament, God’s glorious, fearful presence dwelled in the Tabernacle—a holy tent in the middle of the camp. And now, John shouts, “Look! The true Tabernacle is here! It’s the human body of Jesus Christ! God is not in a tent made of cloth; He’s in a body made of flesh and blood! He is IMMANUEL—GOD WITH US—in the most literal, tangible, incredible way possible!”

But I have to ask you today: WHY? Why this extreme mission? Why this divine condescension? Why does God go this far?

Let me give you not just reasons, but REVELATIONS of His heart.

FIRST: He came to SAVE and RECONCILE. Here’s the problem: Sin isn’t just a mistake; it’s a divorce. It’s a wall. It’s us taking the gift of our lives and running into a far country, away from the Father’s house. And from our side of that wall, we could never break through. We couldn’t climb high enough, dig deep enough, or be good enough.

So what does God do? Does He shout instructions from the other side? No! He comes Himself. In Jesus, God jumps over the wall! He enters our prison and says, “I am the way out. Follow me.” He doesn’t just send a pardon in the mail; He comes in person to lead the prisoners home. The incarnation is God’s daring, loving, costly rescue mission!

SECOND: He came to REVEAL GOD’S LOVE. God could have saved us with a decree from heaven. “Forgiven!” Done. But love… love doesn’t work like that. Real love has to be seen. It has to be touched. It has to be proven.

A husband can say, “I love you.” But when he gets up in the middle of the night to care for his sick wife, that word becomes flesh. That’s what God did! He said, “I’m not just going to tell you I love you. I’m going to SHOW you.” He became one of us. He laughed with friends. He wept at gravesides. And then, He stretched out His arms on the cross and said, “THIS is how much I love you. I would rather die than live without you.” The manger points straight to the cross. Christmas is God’s first step on the road to Good Friday, all to prove a love that would not let us go.

THIRD: He came to be our MODEL—our blueprint for LIFE. God doesn’t just save us from hell; He saves us for heaven! He doesn’t just want forgiven sinners; He wants a family of sons and daughters who look like their big brother, Jesus!

We were lost, trying to figure out what it means to be human. Then Jesus shows up and says, “Watch Me. This is what it looks like.” How do you pray? Watch Him. How do you forgive your enemies? Watch Him. How do you serve the broken, love the unlovable, trust the Father in the storm? Watch Him! He is the perfect image of a life fully alive to God. He came to show us how to live in the Father’s love every single moment.

But friends get ready for the fourth one. This is the BIG ONE. This is the one that will blow the roof off your understanding of grace.

FOURTH: He came to MAKE US SHARERS IN HIS DIVINE NATURE.

Let me say that again. The goal of Christmas… is for you to become LIKE GOD.

I can see some of you getting nervous! I’m not talking about heresy! I’m talking about the glorious promise of the Gospel! Listen to the ancient saints who shouted this truth:

St. Athanasius said, “The Son of God became man so that we might become God.”
St. Thomas Aquinas said God became man “so that He, made man, might make men gods.”

WHAT?!
Does that sound shocking? It should! It’s the most beautiful, humbling, empowering truth in the universe!

He doesn’t mean we become little independent deities. He means we are drawn into the very life of the Trinity! Through Jesus, you are invited—not just to admire God, not just to obey God—but to SHARE IN GOD’S OWN LIFE. His love becomes your love. His joy becomes your joy. His holiness becomes your character. His forever-life becomes your destiny!

You see, when you were baptized, you weren’t just signed up for a religion. You were grafted into Christ. You were immersed into the life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God’s mission wasn’t just to fix you up. It was to FILL YOU UP with HIMSELF!

That’s why at every single Mass, at the Preparation of the Gifts, the priest takes a drop of water—symbolizing you and me, our humanity—and mingles it with the wine—symbolizing Christ’s divinity. And he prays this explosive prayer: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

Did you hear that? It’s the prayer of Christmas! “God, you became what we are, so we could become what you are.” This isn’t just poetry. This is our DESTINY.

So, what does this mean for us today, right now?

It means when you look in the mirror tomorrow morning, you don’t just see a tired person trying to make it through another day. You see a TABERNACLE. A temple of the Holy Spirit. A son or daughter in whom the divine nature is at work. You are a carrier of the incarnate Christ to your office, your school, your home.

It means your struggles, your joys, your ordinary moments are all touched by eternity. The Word became flesh, so your flesh—your hands, your feet, your voice—can now reveal His love to the world.

Don’t you dare leave this Christmas season just thinking, “That was a nice story about a baby.”
You have beheld His glory.
The Word became flesh… FOR YOU.
So that you could become a child of God.
So that you could live in the unshakable reality: GOD IS WITH YOU. AND HE IS WITHIN YOU.

Go out from here today not just encouraged, but EMPOWERED. Not just forgiven, but FILLED. You have received from His fullness, grace upon grace.

You are loved. You are reconciled. You have the model. And you are being transformed. Live in that truth. Live in the light that the darkness can never, ever overcome.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Go be who you are: God’s beloved, reflecting His glory to the world!