Christmas Eve 2025

John leads us beyond the manger and into eternity. Before the world was formed, before darkness and light were named, the Word already was. This Word was with God and was God, the source of all life and all light. Christmas Eve does not tell us that God began loving the world tonight; it tells us that God’s eternal love has finally come close enough to touch. The light shines in the darkness, John says, and the darkness does not overcome it. Not fear. Not grief. Not sin. Not death.

And then comes the wonder at the heart of the gospel: the Word became flesh and lived among us. God does not save from a distance. God does not shout instructions from heaven. God enters our fragile, ordinary lives—taking on skin and breath, vulnerability and dependence. In Jesus Christ, God chooses nearness. Grace and truth take up residence among us. Christmas Eve invites us not to explain this mystery, but to receive it: the Light has come, and it has come close.

Reflection Question:
Where do you most need the nearness of Christ—the Word made flesh—this Christmas Eve?