THE MYSTERY OF CHRISTMAS

Today , beloved , is born our Savior : rejoice ! It is not good that there is sadness in the day when it comes to life, who, having destroyed the fear of death , presents us with the joyful promise of eternity. No one is excluded from taking part in this joy, because the reason for the joy is unique and all common : our Lord , the destroyer of sin and death , came to liberate all , without exception,  as Hedid not find any free from sin.

Let the saint rejoice , because it is close to the prize. Joy to the sinner , he is invited to pardon. Let revive the pagan, he is called to life. The Son of God, in the fullness of time that the divine plan , deep and inscrutable , He had intended , He assumed the nature of mankind to reconcile with his Creator , so that the devil author ‘s death , was defeated by the death with which he had won . In this duel , fought for us, was the supreme principle of justice , the highest expression . The Lord Almighty , in fact, in the majesty that belongs to him , but in our humility fought against the cruel enemy. He opposed the enemy our own state, our own nature , but that he was a partaker of our mortality , but free from any sin …… Nothing of lust of flesh has been transmitted in this unique birth , nothing is derived to it from the law of sin.

A  Virgin belonging to the family David, has been chosen and  destined to bring within the holy offspring, conceives the Son , God and man , before with Her  mind then  with the body. And why , unaware of the supreme council , She is  not  afraid of the  unexpected pregnancy , She learned from the interview with the angel that the Holy Spirit must work in Her.

She does not believe that it is  an indecent assault to become the mother of God the One to whom the promise is to work fecundity of the Most High , how could doubt the new way of conceiving  ? Her faith , already perfect, it is strengthened by the declaration of an earlier miracle : an unexpected fertility is given to Elizabeth, to not doubt  the birth  to the Virgin as  already has  been granted to the sterile the  ability   to conceive .

( From : St. Leo the Great , First speech in the Nativity of the Lord )