The First of the Nine Days before Christmas (December 16)

Story:
There was once a man who didn't believe in God. One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? So she and the children left, and he stayed home. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and could not go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed. The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and did not seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us?
That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

Today is the first day of our Simbang Gabi (Night Worship) and we are here this early hour in the church to prepare spiritually for Christmas. We have come to know and to believe in the love of God has for us. We have come to express our faith that Jesus is the Son of God who became man. In expressing the truth of our faith in God today, we are also called to examine ourselves and renew ourselves before God by being baptized with the baptism of John i.e., the baptism of repentance so as to wash away our sins. Our repentance is our response to the love of God which He has bestowed on us.

Scripture:
When they heard this all the people and the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God themselves, not having been baptized (Luke 7: 24-30).

Study:
My dear fellow believers, on this first day of our Simbang Gabi, it is not important whether you can complete the novena masses that we have before Christmas, what matters is your disposition to offer yourself –your body and soul, as a gift for Jesus this Christmas. A person who does not repent and change his or her evil ways rejects the purpose of God for him or her.