It is customary to hear the Roman Martyrology recited before the beginning of Midnight Mass. The text, which relates the birth of Christ to major events in sacred and secular history, reads, “in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace, JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
Today, we commemorate this beautiful truth: the eternal God desired to consecrate, to make sacred our world by his most loving presence. In so doing, he made it possible for us to call him ours. Small and vulnerable, He rested in the arms of his mother and the arms of so many others, who were moved to love by his loving presence. That same loving presence still dwells in our world today, making our world a sacred place.
Like a small child in our arms, Lord, remain near us, move us to love with your loving presence, and consecrate our hearts and our world.