V/​ My eyes are turned to you, O Lord.

R/​ You are the joy and gladness of my youth.

V/​ Grant me the Wisdom that sits by your throne.

R/ That I may dwell as a child in your presence.

Let us pray. Lord, in your loving design, you have drawn me here to encounter you in your Word and, in you, to find myself. Empower me by your Wisdom, that this meditation may be a font of transformation and freedom, bearing fruit for my salvation and that of the whole Church. Amen

THE GLORY AROUND US: “IN SWADDLING CLOTHS”

CHRISTMAS NIGHT

Isaiah 9:1-7; Psalm 95(96):1-3,11-13; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14

25th December 2025

We gather in the deep silence of this night—a silence that the Carmelite heart knows is not empty, but teeming with Presence. St Luke begins his narrative not in heaven, but with the cold, hard facts of earthly history: Caesar Augustus issued a decree. The whole world is in motion at the command of a man who called himself a god and the ‘saviour of the world’.

Yet, as the great engines of the Roman Empire churn, the true axis of history shifts imperceptibly to a small stable in the Judaean hills. There is a profound irony here that Pope Benedict XVI, often highlighted: the emperor dominates the world, but God enters through the door of the lowly. True glory is not found in the marble of Rome, but in the stable of Bethlehem.

When the glory of the Lord finally breaks through, it shines not upon the imperial palace, but around shepherds—the anawim—terrified by the uncreated light. Yet, the angel offers a sign that seems entirely contradictory to this glory: ‘You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’

This is the central paradox of Christmas. The sign of God’s power is His powerlessness. The sign of the Infinite is that He has allowed Himself to be bound.

St Luke mentions these ‘swaddling clothes’ twice. For the Church Fathers, they reveal a threefold mystery:

  • The Icon of Wisdom: King Solomon wrote, ‘I was nursed in swaddling clothes… for there is no king who had a different beginning’ (Wisdom 7:4-5). Jesus is the new Solomon, the true Wisdom, stripped of earthly gold.
  • The Lamb of God: Shepherds would swaddle a newborn lamb to keep it unblemished for sacrifice. Here lies the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
  • The Shadow of the Cross: Most poignantly, the swaddling bands point to the linen cloths of the tomb. In the iconographic tradition, the manger is often depicted as a stone coffin. He accepts the bindings of human mortality to untie us from the bonds of sin.

The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem. They saw the glory in the fields, but in the stable, they saw only the poverty. It required the eyes of faith to see the glory hidden within the poverty.

For us, as we stand at the altar tonight, the mystery remains the same. We do not see flashes of lightning. We see the ‘swaddling clothes’ of the Sacramental species—bread and wine, ordinary elements of the earth.

God’s glory is safeguarded in humility. If He appeared in His naked power, we would be crushed. Instead, He comes wrapped in the swaddling cloths of humanity, and now in the appearance of bread, so that we might approach Him without fear.

Tonight, let us not be deceived by the smallness of the sign. The bands that bind the infant Jesus are the very bands that hold the universe together—the bands of love.

Venite adoremus.

Prayer:

O Divine Infant, bound in the swaddling clothes of our mortality, You tied Yourself to our nature so that we might be unbound from sin. Grant us the eyes of the shepherds, to see Your glory hidden in the humble, and the faith to recognise You under the swaddling clothes of the Eucharist. Amen.

Ponder Questions:

1. What “bindings” or limitations in my own life (age, health, duty) am I resenting, rather than accepting as a way to share in His kenosis?

2. Do I struggle to believe in God’s presence when the “special effects” are gone and life feels ordinary or difficult?

3. How do I listen to the creative Word of Christ in the Eucharist, becoming flesh “this is my body… A “humble disguise” hiding the same glory that terrified the shepherds?

Practice for the week:

During the elevation of the Host at this Mass, make a specific act of silent adoration, repeating in your heart: “My Lord and my God, in swaddling veils for love of me.”

Memory Phrase:

“The sign of God’s power is His powerlessness; the sign of the Infinite is that He has allowed Himself to be bound.”