Christmas Eve marks the final moment where the prophecies of salvation history will be fulfilled in the birth of a Messiah. The Gospel of Luke (1:67-79) gives us a beautiful song of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving that has become a part of the daily prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours, for the Church, and rightly so. Each and every day of our lives, we are called to welcome Jesus, to ask him in, to recommit ourselves to be his follower. By God’s grace, we live out our faith, daily conforming ourselves to Christ, in the hope of eternal life with the Resurrected Son of God. Let us pray, giving praise and thanksgiving to God in the words of Zechariah:
“’Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our father and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace.’”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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