Christmas Day is a feast of the angels as well as of men.(2025-12-25)

My dear Brethren,

St. Luke (Lk 2:8–14) tells us that "An angel of the Lord appeared to [the shepherds], and the glory of the Lord shone around them." The angel informed them of the birth of the Savior. Then, “suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.”

It was fitting that this manifestation of the angels should have been made on the feast of the Nativity. The Fathers of the Church, when speaking of the fall of the rebel angels, tend to explain it as the refusal to adore the incarnate God that was to be; they would not bow down before Him Who was to make Himself “a little less than the angels" (Ps 8:6). Hence, when the actual manifestation came, those who had been faithful could not but have rejoiced; they must have seen in that Child more than even Mary saw, for they saw His Godhead shining through His human frame, and they recognized in Him the great union of God with men. 

As St. John Chrysostom so vividly proclaimed in his Christmas homily: “Behold a new and wondrous mystery... The Angels sing. The Archangels blend their voice in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt his glory. All join to celebrate this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth, and man in heaven... For this day... a heavenly way of life has been implanted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.”

Later, Our Lord was to speak of His own love for and reliance on His angels; in the entrusting to them of children; in the use He would make of them to separate the just from the unjust; in the acceptance of an angel to strengthen Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; in the knowledge that He had but to ask His Father and legions of angels would come to His support.

Christmas Day, then, is a feast of the angels as well as of men.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Lk 2:14). 

This was the angels' song of praise. It has two divisions. 

First, at the moment of Our Lord's humble birth on earth, the angels break out with their chorus of praise. St. Paul saw it in the same light: "He has humbled Himself ... therefore God has exalted Him (Phil 2:7-9). 

Then, the consequences to warworn man are recorded. Man at war with God, man at war with himself, man all restless, is at last to be given peace, if only he will have it. Again St. Paul sees with the angels' eyes: "He is our peace," he says, "Who hath made both one, …making peace, and reconciling both to God in one body on the cross, killing the enmities in Himself" (Eph 2:14-16). It was not merely the "Pax Romana," at that moment reigning, that the angels announced; it was the still greater "Peace which the world cannot give," (Jn 14:27), which those know who possess it. 

This peace the angels proclaimed is no fleeting sentiment or earthly truce. St. Augustine teaches us that true peace is the “tranquility of order,” where the soul, submitting all things rightly to God, finds rest in His goodwill. This is the peace reserved for those of good will, who respond to grace as the Blessed Virgin Mary did—with humble fiat—allowing Christ to be formed within them.

My dear Brethren,

let us heed the heavenly host this Christmas. 

Like the faithful angels, let us adore the Incarnate Word with unwavering fidelity, rejecting the rebellious set of mind that once shattered heaven. 

Like the Blessed Virgin, let us open our souls in humble consent, that Christ may be born anew in us. Let us seek this inner peace which He alone bestows on His chosen ones. 

May the Infant King, the Prince of Peace, rule in our hearts, and may His holy angels guard us in His peace, now and forever. Amen.

fr. B. Wailliez