lease read this passage before reading the homily.
The Gospel according to John has an unusual way of telling of the birth of Jesus, quite different from that of Matthew and Luke. The choirs of angels and the treasures of the Magi are brought before the Word of God, spoken at creation and spoken again at the re-creation when the Word of God takes on our human flesh and dwells among us.
The Word of God, made flesh among us so that our flesh could become Word and dwell with God. This Child of God, the Word-made-flesh, became human so that we humans could become Children of God, the human word becoming God-like.
In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the Word was God. In this, our time, is the Word and the Word is with us, and we came to be through the Word.
The word glory means to be real. To see a person’s glory is to see the true identity and reality of the person. Therefore, those who see God’s glory know God know God as God is. To know our glory, therefore, means to know us as we are.
The Word of God is the glory of God because Word of God knows God as God is. This Word of God, by becoming our flesh, knows us completely and, therefore, know our glory completely. By sharing in our glory, which means by sharing our human nature, the Word of God allows us to see his glory as God. This is how the Word of God shares with us his glory as the Father’s only Son.
We could say that Christ became Christmas so that Christmas could become our birthday.
Since Christ, the Word of God, shares our glory by sharing our nature, we have all received of his fullness. This fullness means we share in his likeness to the Father. In fact, Christ came to share this fullness so that we could learn how to live in God’s image and likeness. The Word of God is this fulness and the Word of God has shared this fulness with us.
The Word of God took our flesh, our nature upon himself so that we likewise could become that Word of God and share God’s own nature as God’s children.
This is John’s view of Christmas. This is why the first chapter of John’s Gospel makes a good reading for Christmas day.