The Cosmic Significance of Christmas

Homily of Most Rev. Charles John Brown, D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines

December 25, 2025| Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

The Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, Manila City

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

Photo from The Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat Manila

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

For me as the Apostolic Nuncio here in the Philippines, it's always a great joy for me to come to the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat. Always at the invitation of the Right Rev. Abbot Austin P. Cadiz, OSB, the wonderful Abbot of this monastery, who has invited me once again to be here with you for Christmas Day. I don't know how many times I've been here—four or five for Christmas. It's a tradition that has been established, and I'm very happy to be doing that again this morning, together with the Counsellor at the Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr. Giuseppe Trentadue, and our newly arrived secretary, Fr. Guilherme De Melo Sanches. The three of us are with you this morning.

So, today is Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to one and all! May God bless you! This is a joyful and wonderful moment. Some of you, certainly all the monks, were present last night for the midnight Mass, the Mass at night; and the Mass at night, for those of you who were present, the Mass in the evening, in the dark, focuses our attention on the Belen, on Bethlehem. Our focus is on Mary and Joseph coming to Bethlehem, having walked all the way from Nazareth, looking for a place to stay, finding no room in the inn, and then going out to the outskirts, the far flung areas of Bethlehem, finding a stable where animals lived, and giving birth to Jesus, there in the darkness.

Our focus on Christmas Eve is on that microcosm, on Bethlehem, on the Belen: Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the ox and the ass (donkey), and the humble shepherds. This beautiful, intimate scene of joy, of light. So, we can say on Christmas Eve, the focus of the Church is on Bethlehem. We zoom in on Bethlehem. Then on Christmas Day, right now, the Church zooms out. So last night, we zoomed in on Bethlehem. Today, we zoom out, and we see Bethlehem. We see the incarnation. We see Christmas in the context of all of cosmic history: everything, the creation of the universe, all of that. We zoom out and we see this big vision, this cosmic vision.

In a few moments, when I finish my homily, we will recite together the Nicene Creed, the Creed which encapsulates what we're talking about on Christmas Day. That Jesus is God from God. The baby Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” When we say those words this morning, we will all kneel in adoration. “He came down from heaven and became man.” This year is the 1,700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, in which those words were developed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

First: The Creation

I think as we reflect on the cosmic significance of Christmas, we can think about three stages that are mentioned in our reading this morning. First: creation, the existence of time, space and matter. We look at the world around us, brothers and sisters, we should always ask ourselves, “Why is there anything instead of nothing?” “Why is there something and not nothing?” The answer, of course, is God. We read in the Gospel of John (John 1:1-18), which was sung so beautifully this morning, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Then these words, “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”

So, the baby Jesus is the Word made flesh, who has created the entire cosmos, the galaxies, everything. We heard it also in the Letter to the Hebrews, our second reading (Hebrews 1:1-6) this morning, “In these last days, God has spoken to us through His Son… through whom he created the universe.”

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, “God said: Let there be light, and there was light,” “dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux” (Genesis 1:3). “Let there be light.” That was the big bang. The beginning of everything. Scientists tell us that it happened 13.8 billion years ago, almost 14 billion years ago. (Let me say in parentheses that the great mathematician and astronomer who really discovered the Big Bang was a Catholic priest, Monsignor Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest, a mathematician, an astronomer, professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain.) So, when anyone tells you the Church is against Science, you should smile and think that this person who is saying it is very ignorant. Because the Church is not in any way against Science. The Church is interested in Science because our religion is coherent with Science. Science will never contradict our faith. Science will always reaffirm our faith. “Let there be light, and there was light,” the Big Bang, 14 billion years ago. So, that's the first moment that we reflect on in this cosmic history of all of humanity.

Second: The Life

Then the second moment, we also heard, in the reading of the Gospel, “What came to be through Jesus was life, and this life was the light of the human race,” or more simply, “in Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind,” the second intervention of God. The first: creation, time, space, matter, galaxies, the Big Bang, and then life.

Life, somehow began on this planet where you and I live. “In Him was life.” In Jesus, the Word. That life was the light of mankind. The origin of life on Earth. Another very interesting question. Different from the creation, the Big Bang, which took place 14 billion years ago, the origin of life on Earth, probably three and a half billion years ago, much more recently, life began here. It's interesting. If you ask someone on the street or at the university, where did life come from? Many of them will tell you it came from evolution.

Evolution may be true, but evolution does not tell us where life came from. Evolution tells us that once life was already here, how it evolved, how it developed, how it changed, how it progressed. It doesn't say how life began at all. If you read even on Wikipedia, the origin of life on Earth, how life began, it's a big mystery. Scientists don't have any idea how life began. When I say life, I mean biological life, the origin of life: bacteria, grass, trees, fish, lizards, mosquitoes, birds, all of these things are alive.

You know? It's very interesting. No new life has been created since the beginning of life, 3.5 billion years ago. No new life. All life is progressing. Mosquitoes give birth to new mosquitoes after they bite us and get our blood right. Trees give birth to new trees through the seeds. No new life. Life is continuing, and it all began 3.5 billion years ago.

That, in some ways, was an act of God: biological life, and we share that biological life. That biological life is in us. That's the biological life that doctors take care of when we go to the hospital. So, we keep our biological life going in this world. So, by nature, we have that biological life in us. The way that birds, fish, and lizards do. That life that began 3.5 billion years ago. “In Him was life, and life was the light of the human race.”

Third: He Dwelt Among Us

Then we have the third level, and that's what we celebrate here on Christmas Day. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

14 billion years ago, creation of the universe,

3.5 billion years ago, the origin of life,

2025 years ago, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The One who created all of this, came to be one of us, who was born in Bethlehem, a city that still exists, a place. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He has come into the world to save us from our sins, and to give us supernatural life.

So, we have that natural life that I'm talking about that was created 3.5 billion years ago. But then, and this is the point of the incarnation that St. John talks about in the Gospel we heard this morning. What does he say, “To those who accepted Jesus, He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name” (John 1:12).

Those words are difficult to understand. “Those who are born not by natural generation,” that's where our biological life comes from, our parents, natural generation; but the Gospel says we were born not by natural generation or by human choice, the choice of our mother and our father, not by man's decision, “but by God” (John 1:13).

So, when Jesus comes into the world, a new form of life becomes available to us. In Him, through Him, and with Him, supernatural life that comes into us, and changes us, and helps us to live on another level; not on a biological level, but on a supernatural level. That is the entire point of Christmas, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” so that we could live on this level of supernatural life, the level of grace. Because biological life in each and every one of us will come to an end. We have a word for that. It's called death. But if we have supernatural life in us, then that life will carry us into what we will confess at the end of the Creed this morning, “the life of the world to come.” The next world.

That supernatural life is in us, and where does it come from? It comes from Jesus. It's interesting. Bethlehem in Hebrew (בית לחם / Beit Lechem) means “House of Bread,” “House of Bread”. In that, we have a little indication of how that supernatural life comes into us. It's through the Bread of Life, which all of us will receive in a few moments, when I finish my short homily, we will receive the Bread of Life—the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. A supernatural life, not biological life.

Biological life is kept alive in us because we eat normal food; but supernatural life comes into us through the bread of life coming from Bethlehem, the house of bread.

Life in Jesus

So, my dear brothers and sisters: that is the point of Christmas, that this life will come into us, and will preserve us, and transform us, and lead us into the life of the world to come. That life is nourished by the Eucharist, but it has begun in baptism. It's very interesting. Your scientists, when they talk about the origin of biological life 3.5 billion years ago, they seem to believe that it began in the water. Seems to have begun in the oceans. So, biological life beginning in the water, supernatural life begins in the water too, the water of baptism, which changes us. Then is nourished, fed, strengthened, and reinforced by the Bread of Life, the Eucharist coming from Bethlehem, the house of bread.

Conclusion and Exhortations

So, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, last night, we were focused on the little scene of Bethlehem. Today, our vision expands to all of creation, all of cosmic history, from the beginning to the end, from the original creation to what we expect to see, the life of the world to come, the next world, all becomes present in and through Jesus, who is our Way, our Truth and our Life, who feeds us in the Holy Eucharist.

As I conclude, I ask you to remember to pray for Pope Leo XIV. He is in Rome, celebrating his first Christmas these days. So, let's pray for him in a very special way, our new Holy Father.

Thank you for listening to me and my short homily.

May God bless you.

Merry Christmas to one and all you!

Transcribed by Joel Vasquez Ocampo