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Commentary on the Gospel – December 25, 2025
The Grace of God Has Appeared
However, there is a danger that this great news might sound like a hollow formula to our ears—a rhetorical cliché that we have repeated so many times it doesn’t say anything to us anymore.
Truthfully, we might ask ourselves: after more than two thousand years of Christ’s birth—after celebrating Christmas and announcing this “joyful news” over and over—what has really changed? Where is this “Sun rising from on high” (Lk 1:78)? Doesn’t it seem that, after two thousand years of the “Christian era,” we are still living in darkness and shadows?
The truth is, injustice and violence, poverty and hunger, war and oppression still reign in our world. Darkness has many faces and surrounds us in many ways. On the large scale of human tragedies, and on the smaller scale of our own personal dramas, pains, frustrations, and dissatisfaction (which don’t feel small to us at all!), it seems like the darkness is winning.
And let’s be honest: after two thousand years of Christmas celebrations, we are still walking in shadows. The “fireworks” we invented hoping to replace the light born in Bethlehem—science, social revolutions, progress—might have dazzled us at first, but they haven’t brought the promised salvation. In the end, they have often caused even more frustration.
However, even while admitting there is some truth to those complaints, if we stop there—if we stay stuck in criticism and protest—it means we haven’t truly understood the message of Christmas.
Let’s listen to it again: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
It doesn’t say, nor does it announce, that there is no more darkness. It says that in the midst of the darkness, a great light shines. This way, the people walking aimlessly in the dark (that’s all of us) have found a way to get their bearings, to find the path, to stop being lost and head toward the goal. Truly, in the middle of the dark, just a small light is enough to keep you from losing your way. And tonight, we have received not a small light, but a great light: the light of Jesus Christ, shining in the middle of the night.
It is a great light, capable of illuminating the whole world and all of history. That is why Luke places Christ’s birth within the context of the cosmos and universal history: “A decree went out from Emperor Augustus, ordering a census of the whole world.”
But the way this light appears isn’t blinding or dazzling. This great light is enclosed in the humanity of a newborn baby. In this way, God tells us (and this alone illuminates us quite a bit) who we human beings are to Him. If God Himself adopts humanity and becomes a man in Jesus, it means being human isn’t something insignificant or a blind accident. It is endowed with enormous importance: We matter to God!
But this human appearance that holds the divine light requires an act of faith on our part. To see in the dark and walk toward the light, we have to open our eyes; we have to believe and trust. Now we can understand that believing isn’t walking blindly—it is walking in pursuit of the light.
In reality, we are the ones responsible for the darkness of our history. It is not God, but us, who declare wars (even if some abuse God’s name to justify them). It is us who behave unjustly, us who use violence or lies. History and the world are our field, and God respects our freedom.
But that respect, which forbids Him from meddling in our decision-making (which would destroy our freedom and make us puppets—perhaps happy puppets, but certainly not happily human), does not mean He remains indifferent or abandons us to our fate. God comes to visit us to offer us His light, to teach us the path of true happiness, of goodness, of salvation.
It also depends on us whether we welcome Him or reject Him. Why, after more than 2,000 years of celebrating Christmas, are we still in the dark? Because “there was no room for them in the inn.” As St. John says in the Gospel for Christmas Day, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him” (Jn 1:9, 11).
However, John also reminds us that it’s not true that no one received Him, or that nothing has changed. “But to all who received him… he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
Luke identifies the shepherds as those who received Him. In those times, shepherds had a very bad reputation for various reasons. But Jesus does not come for the righteous, but for sinners. No one is “bad” by definition. That is why, today, the shepherds represent the poor, those who live out in the open, those who are open-hearted, those who keep watch.
Depending on how we read the song of the heavenly host, we can understand that the shepherds are “people of good will,” or even better, those “whom the Lord loves”—which, in principle, is every human being. The shepherds are the ones who set out on the journey, who walk through the darkness because they recognize the light.
In a special way, the shepherds today are the children, who aren’t yet spoiled by routine and are capable of perceiving the joyful newness of the angels’ message. They are the children and those who are like them: Joseph and Mary, the Magi from the East, Peter and Paul and the other Apostles, Justin, Ignatius of Alexandria, Augustine, Francis, Dominic, Teresa, Anthony Mary Claret, and a long list of names mostly unknown to us (but in which we are included). They all belong to that lineage of shepherds, people keeping watch, children at heart.
God has given us the light of Jesus Christ. This means that darkness (the evil of the world in all its forms) is no longer an excuse. We can go to adore Him. We can, if we want, walk in His footsteps. We can welcome His Word and put it into practice, making it the light that illuminates the dark.
Perhaps, in this way, we won’t completely dispel the darkness around us. But at least we will see the light born in Bethlehem. And we will be able not only to walk but to be, through our good works, small lamps that shine by reflecting the light received from Jesus—giving hope and helping others to walk.
So, it is true: there is darkness. But today we discover that there is also light. That there is, above all, light.