The Faithful Story Of Christmas

(Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D. excerpts during the 2nd Day of Misa De Gallo 2025 at Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), Dec. 17, 2025.)

In this second Dawn Mass, as we recall soon the birth of this Messiah who rose from the dead in His resurrection who promised that the lame, the mute, the deaf, the blind in final resurrection, then Matthew was telling us something in this list, dili historical accuracy, many names are correct but may impact si Matthew that would like to hear us in this second mass. Matthew was saying “He is one of us”, one of us, kadugo nato sa humanity, especially sa mga Hudeyo including questionable characters. Kining mga babaye, ang mga Hudeyo careful ni sila sa ilang purities sa linya, ang mga babaye, medyo lihis, medyo foreigner sila, difficult for Matthew to write or not difficult but maybe unusual but already Matthew would believe guided by the Holy Spirit, Jesus, this Messiah born is coming from us, very imperfect humanity and in contrast sa tumoy, suddenly Joseph and Mary.

We wait for the Lord, yes, but we ask many of us: would I be worthy to catch Him, to be with Him? Am I left to do my own works, to be worthy? But the thing my dear friends is this, the dynamics is this. Not that Christmas is a season of “Dong, dai paningkamot duol sa Ginoo, ang maulahi malas ka lang.” Christmas is a paningkamot nga “I’ll go to the manger, ako ang moadto”, no sayop na. Christmas one more time this year is a true story that God embraces us, all of us, all the defects, because He cannot not do it. It is His nature, somebody said that God is crazy about us. So that’s why ang story sa kaliwat ni Hesus gibutangan ni Matthew do not worry, He embraces us all, mga depekto, makasasala, and that’s the faithful story of Christmas.