Before we proceed with our reflection today, allow me to inform you that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila has issued a circular regarding Catholics’ fulfillment of their Sunday obligation and the Holy Day of Obligation because 24 December falls on a Sunday, which is still in the season of Advent while 25 December falls on a Monday which is a Holy Day of Obligation.

To clarify things, His Eminence Jose F. Cardinal Advincula said that since the eve of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (24 December) and the eve of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God (31 December) falls on a Sunday this year, the reckoning of solemnities “begins on the evening of the previous day” (General Norms on the Liturgical Year and Calendar, no. 3).

On 24 December, the dawn Mass is the Simbang Gabi. The other masses in the morning till the afternoon will be Masses of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and Masses from 6 in the evening will be Vigil Masses of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. The last Mass in the evening of 24 December will be the Midnight Mass of Christmas. Evening Prayer I of Christmas will be prayed in the evening of 24 December.

On 31 December, the morning and afternoon Masses will be for the Feast of the Holy Family. Masses in the evening will be Vigil Masses of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Evening Prayer I of the solemnity will be prayed in the evening on 31 December.

As a pastoral response, it is decreed that those participating in the evening Masses on 24 December satisfy their Sunday obligation and their Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord obligation. Likewise, those who participate in the evening masses on 31 December satisfy their Sunday obligation and the solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God’s obligation.

The Cardinal said it is hoped this clarification will help all priests, religious, and Catholics be guided in celebrating the Christmas season with lively faith.

After a long preparation period during Advent, we can finally sing in great joy and jubilation, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the Highest!”

God’s salvation has come into our midst, and we recall the moment when this significant event in our salvation and existence happened more than two thousand years ago in the small town of Bethlehem in Judea.

At the time, in the small town where David, the famous King of Israel, hailed from, in a manger in a stable where animals were kept, a young Child was born, the firstborn of His Mother Mary, an unassuming young woman who had come with her husband Joseph from Nazareth in Galilee.

Although for some, this may have seemingly been an ordinary occasion, of just another birth happening in this world, and all the more happening in a small and ordinary town, not something memorable, yet it is one of the most important moments in our faith which allows us to hope once again in the Lord.

His coming was welcomed not with the great fanfare that usually accompanies the birth of royalty and great personages. Yet, His birth is the singular most important birth that has happened and will ever happen.

But God sent us His Son so that He can gather us all, His lost sheep wandering worldwide. And His entry into this world, His Nativity, is what we all rejoice about this day and throughout the Christmas season.

We must realize that without Christ and His Incarnation, His entry into this world, and later with everything that He had done for our sake, in willingly embracing and taking upon Himself our sins and the punishments due for those sins, we would have been doomed by those same sins and wickedness.