Matthew's genealogy of Jesus goes back to Abraham, the father of God's people; Luke's genealogy of Jesus' ancestry goes all the way back to Adam, thus embracing the whole human race.

Whereas John's Prologue goes back to God Himself. John is the only Gospel writer who does not stop at Bethlehem. John is more concerned with the WHY and WHO of Christmas than the WHERE of Christmas.

So he travels to eternity to reveal the Person of Jesus Christ. This is a remarkable passage because it gives us the theology of Christmas. While the Gospel selections for the Vigil, Midnight, and Dawn Masses describe the history of Christmas, the selection from John's Gospel for this Daytime Mass lifts us out of history into the realm of Mystery. His wonderful Name is the Word.

In Matthew's Gospel, the Baby in the manger is the Word of God, the very Self-expression of God. He was present at creation; He is actually the One through Whom and for Whom all things were made. The Psalmist in Psalm 98 reminds us that the Kingdom includes everyone, not just the Chosen People, singing, "All the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation by our God!"

In the Prologue of his Gospel, John introduces the birth of Jesus as the dawning of the Light Who will remove the darkness of evil from the world. He records later in his Gospel why Light is the perfect symbol of Christmas: Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world" (Jn 8:12), and we say: