Office Of Readings | Christmas Day | Nativity Of The Lord Jesus | A Reading From A Sermon By Pope Saint Leo The Great | Oh Christian, Be Aware Of Your Nobility

Christian Art | Christmas | Nativity Of The Lord Jesus

Office Of Readings | Christmas Day | Nativity Of The Lord Jesus | A Reading From A Sermon By Pope Saint Leo The Great | Oh Christian, Be Aware Of Your Nobility

‘Oh Christian, be aware of your nobility.’

Saint Leo speaks of Christ’s birth as a source of joy that applies to all people. This joy does not depend on personal achievement or moral standing. Saints, sinners, and those outside the faith are all addressed. Christ comes because no one is free from sin, and therefore no one is excluded from the offer of salvation.

Leo places the Incarnation within God’s plan. The Son of God takes human nature in order to reconcile it with its creator. Salvation is not achieved outside human life but within it. Christ overcomes sin and death in the same human nature in which humanity had fallen.

The angelic song at Christ’s birth is presented as a sign of what God is doing. Peace is proclaimed because humanity is being gathered into one people. The ‘heavenly Jerusalem’ is built from all nations, showing that salvation is not limited to one group.

Leo then moves from what God has done to how Christians are to live. Because God has brought us to life in Christ, we are called a ‘new creation’. This does not mean abandoning human life but leaving behind patterns of sin. Christian life is described as a response to what God has already given.

The central exhortation follows: ‘Christian, remember your dignity.’ This dignity comes from sharing in God’s life through Christ. Leo warns against returning to sin, not by threatening punishment, but by reminding believers who they have become and to whom they belong.

Finally, Leo refers to baptism. Through it, the Christian becomes a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and is brought into God’s kingdom. This new freedom has been won at great cost. Christian conduct, therefore, is not about earning salvation but about living in a way that corresponds to it.

A Reading From A Sermon By Pope Saint Leo The Great | Oh Christian, Be Aware Of Your Nobility

Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.

No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to men of good will as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvellous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

Christian Prayer With Jesus

Lord Jesus Christ,
you were born in time to bring us into the life of God.
You took our humanity in order to free us from sin and death
and to restore us to friendship with the Father.

Help us to remember the dignity you have given us.
Strengthen us to turn away from sin
and to live as members of your body,
renewed by baptism and guided by the Holy Spirit.

May our lives reflect the freedom you have won for us,
and may we rejoice always in the gift of salvation
you have given to all.
Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

Common humanity | The shared human nature taken by the Son of God in the incarnation, so that all people might be redeemed.

Dignity | The worth given to the Christian through union with Christ, especially through baptism, by which believers share in God’s life.

Fullness of time | The moment chosen by God for the incarnation, when his plan of salvation reached its decisive stage.

New creation | The transformed life given to believers through Christ, marked by forgiveness of sins and renewal by grace.

Old nature | The former way of life shaped by sin, which Christians are called to leave behind.

Peace to men of good will | The reconciliation with God made possible by Christ, offered to those who receive him in faith.

Temple of the Holy Spirit | The Christian, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells as a result of baptism.

Victor over sin and death | A title for Christ, who through his incarnation, death and resurrection has overcome the powers that enslaved humanity.