Day Mass | Lk 2:1-14
1In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. 2This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. 4And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. 9The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. 10The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. 12And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: 14“Glory to God in the highest/ and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
The people whom God favors
“Glory to God in the highest; peace on earth for people whom he favors.” This is the more accurate translation of the angelic hymn that we echo in its modified and softened version in the Eucharistic celebrations of Sundays and feastdays.
Whom do the angels refer to as the “people whom God favors”?
The evangelist Luke paints their portrait with different strokes in the course of his Gospel account. In the Infancy Narrative, of which the birth of Jesus is the high point, we encounter them as those who hear the announcement of the Savior’s birth and accept to be active participants in the unfolding drama of salvation.
The first figure is Mary of Nazareth, whom the angel addresses as “highly favored one.” She hears the angel’s announcement and humbly accepts the major role that she has been asked to play.
Another figure is Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, who receives the announcement through an impulse of the Spirit, feels the child in her womb leaping in joy, and is inspired to exclaim, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42).
Alongside Elizabeth is her husband Zechariah, who, after suffering dumbness as a consequence of doubting the angel’s announcement of their own son’s birth, now affirms God’s salvific intentions at work in their midst.
Joseph, a subdued figure at the background, nevertheless plays a very active role in the fulfillment of the announcement of the Savior’s birth.
The shepherds—poor, unlettered folk who now become the privileged hearers of the fulfillment of the prophecy long foretold—hasten to witness the marvelous deed of God.
As the Infancy Narrative continues, the old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna, at the movement of the Spirit, recognize in the Child being presented at the temple the fulfillment of Israel’s hope for salvation.
What draws together these diverse characters and makes them all sharers of “God’s favor” is the principal character of the drama—the CHILD who is born this very night, in the fullness of God’s time. All the traits noted in the different characters above—humility, simplicity, faith, openness to the Spirit, poverty—are summed up in him and are possessed by others through participation in the fullness of God’s favor which rests perfectly on him.
Luke’s portrait of the people whom God favors is intentionally left unfinished. After completing his Gospel account and his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, Luke hands over the brush to us, that we may add our own strokes to the portrait. Every year, as we celebrate the birthday of the Child on whom God’s favor perfectly rests, we are invited to become participants in the drama of salvation, and to complete with our own strokes Luke’s colossal portrait of the people whom God favors.