Christmas Day 2021
(Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; St. John 1:1-18)
===============================================================================
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in the course of our Advent preparation Mother Church bade us pray: ‘Lord, as we walk amid passing things, teach us by them to love the things of heaven and hold fast to what endures.’
In accordance with that prayer, I would like to bring to your mind this
Christmas morning a very popular character of great importance in our seasonal
celebrations: Father Christmas. Even though there will be little
attention given in the media and public celebrations to the Person of the Child
Whose coming is so blatantly exploited in this season, Father Christmas is, on
the other hand, to be seen everywhere, feted and surrounded by wondering
children, always being questioned about the gifts he is bringing … will his
sack be big enough to hold, and his reindeer strong enough to carry, them
all? How the media love to plug Father Christmas and his gifts
for the financial advantages such a presentation of Christmas rejoicing brings
for their sponsors, and perhaps, in our present times, also for a more
charitable purpose of bringing some traditional, easily-appreciated joy, to many
suffering under lockdowns from loneliness and tedium!
Practicing Catholics and Christians rightly reject such a distortion of Christmas. And yet, many of them -- while rejecting the commercial Father Christmas -- tend themselves to overlook the real Father-of-Christmas, that is, the heavenly Father of Jesus, and in so doing concoct another distortion of their own, smothering Christmas with sentimentality, centred exclusively on the birth of the child and the joy of his mother. You might have noticed that I have not emphasized ‘the child or his mother’, because those Catholics and Christians I have in mind relate to Jesus’ birth in much as they would to any other mother and baby scenario, and seem to have no doubt that their emotional extravaganza is a fitting, contemporary, expression of that spirit of devotion which drove the Three Kings across desert wastes; indeed, of that spirit of holiness which caused the angels from heaven to burst forth into joyful chorus and filled the hearts and minds of Mary and Joseph with wonder and joy.
Now, whilst such an emotion might be considered acceptable piety for many who are preoccupied with seasonal cares and distractions, it is certainly not satisfactory for those committed disciples of Jesus who have a desire to find a deeper spiritual appreciation of the wonder and beauty of this joyful season.
Father Christmas … I repeat the name, the title, the sobriquet ... because I want to impress upon your Catholic mind and Christian sensitivity the vital, connection between Father and Christmas.
What is the essential character of the Christian celebration of Christmas?
Those sentimental Catholics and Christians to whom I have just referred would say that the wonder of Christmas, its ‘pulling-power’ so to speak, is centred on the beauty and innocence of the Child, which disarms all who are aware of sin in themselves and in the world around.
The evangelists Matthew and Luke tell us of those who originally came in a spirit of joy and wonder to see the new-born Child, the wise men and the shepherds:
The wise men set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they
had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the Child
was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed
with joy. On entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary His
mother; and they knelt down and paid Him homage. Then, opening their treasure
chests, they offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
When the angels had left and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one
another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us.” So, they went with haste and
found Mary and Joseph, and the Child lying in the manger. When they
saw this, they made known what had been told them about this Child; and all who
heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.
However, the Wise Men and the shepherds, on leaving that scene of innocent and yet solemn beauty, seem to have returned to their former lives, for they are not to be encountered again in our Gospel story. They admired, wondered at, the fact of Christ’s advent but were not able to appreciate its depth of meaning and purpose. We have, therefore, to find a way that will lead us deeper into the beauty and peace of that manger scene, towards the eternal wisdom and divine truth hidden in the silent embrace of the as yet speechless Child and His adoring mother.
Let us turn to what St. Luke tells us about Mary at the Birth of the Lord:
I suggest, and I have no doubt that you will agree, that Mary’s attitude
of awe-inspired reverence and total loving-commitment penetrates most surely
and deeply to the essential significance of the Christmas mystery, while it most
truly and fully rejoices the heart of the Father in heaven.
Moreover, we find a similar attitude to the Incarnation of God’s Son in the Gospel of St. John, who, as you will remember, took Mary as his mother to his home in obedience to the dying words of Jesus. Now John, when speaking of the Birth of the Messiah paints no emotionally moving picture, but simply says:
God (the Father) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (3:16)
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father. (1:14)
On both occasions that he brings the Father into prominence; and from
that basis goes on to develop his teaching:
In this is love … that (God, the Father) loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins … (yes,
God the Father) sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through Him. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1
John 4:9-11)
Dear People of God, the wonder of Christmas is indeed found in the Child,
but not if we see the Child merely as One of lovable beauty and disarming innocence. Looking
exclusively and emotionally on the child in such a way, at the best, makes
Christmas into an occasion when we can pour out our feelings
and affections for Him and His mother.
Christmas is only to be appreciated aright if we recognize the Child as the Father’s gift; that is, when He, the Child, is seen as the absolutely unique One through Whom the Father is preparing to touch, change, and save, all of us; the One Who is already a sublimely beautiful expression, and Who, potentially, is the fullest possible manifestation, of the Father’s love for us.
With that understanding we will be ever on the alert for the Good News the Child brings, we will watch Him grow up, desiring to know from Him ever more of the Father’s love, and how we can learn to embrace and respond to that love in and with Him, the only-begotten and well-beloved Son.
“What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord
was (is) with Him.
Indeed, we will thus appreciate what John the Baptist – the greatest of
all the prophets -- could not himself be aware of: namely, that this Child is
the ultimate expression of the Father’s astounding love for us; an appreciation
that fills us with awesome joy in anticipation of what this Child's growth
to manhood and maturity will eventually reveal of the unfathomable depths of
the Father’s divine GOODNESS.
All of which can, alone, prepare us to ultimately embrace and draw eternal fulfilment from, the Cross, the unimaginable destiny the Father has in store
for His only-begotten and beloved Son, and through Him, for us, His long
searched-out, and truly adopted, children.
The greatest moments of the Christian life, dear People of God, are not times in which we do something for God, rather are they moments when we humbly receive, before subsequently beginning -- gratefully and patiently -- to appreciate, God’s marvellous gifts and inconceivable goodness. Ultimately, no human being could ever have found God; we have only come to truly know and experience Him because He has graciously revealed Himself to us, and we, with sufficient spiritual peace of mind and humility of heart, have been able to sincerely welcome and whole-heartedly embrace Him. Consequently, Christmas is a time, an occasion, to be lived in company with, and in imitation of, Mary, His and our, Mother.
God originally created us out of love; in Adam we sinned, becoming subject to Satan, sin and death, and thus allowing chaos and disruption to enter the beautiful garden that had been entrusted to our care: thereby we involved the whole of God’s ‘good’ creation in the consequences of our own fall and failing. Now the great mystery of Christmas is that God -- having originally loved us enough to create us -- showed us, even after such a betrayal in the Garden, yet even greater love by sending His only-begotten and most-beloved Son to become One-like-us-with-us to redeem us.
Father Christmas … Heavenly Father of Christmas ... thank You for the Infant Jesus! Help me to follow every stage of His life and teaching that I might learn from Him how to know and love You, because Jesus said that that was the purpose of His coming: He had come to make Your name known! Father, You give us Jesus, You offer Him anew to us this Christmas … give us, likewise, to Jesus, for He Himself again said that none can draw near to Him unless You, Father, send them to Him. Father, give me to Jesus this Christmas, that in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit of Jesus, I might become, like Him, a true child of Yours!
(2021)
