CHRISTMAS: MASS DURING THE DAY, 2022
(Isaiah 52:7-10;
Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18)
=========================================================================
Of course, the supreme reason why Christmas is so special to us is that at Christmas we celebrate the birth --
as man born of the Virgin Mary of Nazareth – of God’s heavenly, only-begotten,
Son: born, not of man, but by the power and grace of God’s most Holy Spirit, so
that His mother, Mary of Nazareth, at His conception, in His birth was, and
subsequently, throughout her life, remained, always a true virgin: the mother
of a beautiful Child Who was the most sublime Gift of God.
This absolutely unique
Child was perfect God and perfect man, and yet there was for Him, in His human being,
a problem: one not recognized early on, but there, nevertheless, at the very centre
of His being and gradually-developing consciousness, a question for Himself to
solve: who is My father??
His mother always
referred to St. Joseph as His father, and St. Joseph always behaved as such:
loving, protecting, guiding and teaching the young Jesus through His teens and
early manhood. Jesus saw, He knew, that Mary
and Joseph were one for Him, and He loved them both with all His heart, but while
Mary was undoubtedly His mother, just as He was her child, the boy Jesus
could not quite say that Joseph was His father; because He had an awareness,
deep in His being, that God --- the God to Whom He Himself, together with Mary
and Joseph, and all Israel, prayed, the God Who had made the whole of beautiful
creation where, in which, He lived and played, with which worked as ‘the
carpenter’s son’ --- yes, indeed, God Himself, sometimes seemed to say
something to Him; something that touched Him so very, very, deeply, something
that led Him to think that GOD was the only One Whom He could fully, most
humbly and gratefully, call Father.
It all came to a surprising
head when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went on their annual pilgrimage to the Temple
in Jerusalem. Jesus was about 12 years
old and He was so very impressed by the Temple worship He witnessed and took
part in, by the words about God and the Scriptures that He heard from the
priests, scribes, and holy people He met there, that He entirely forgot to turn
up for the caravan preparing to leave for home, the caravan which,
consequently, left without Him: Mary and Joseph having thought that He, Jesus,
was with other young people excitedly running hither and thither, helping here
and there, as they slowly moved off.
Jesus was, as I said, engrossed
with what He witnessed and heard in the Temple and its precincts; but He was even
more aware of and engrossed by a far deeper awareness of the One speaking in
His inmost being: speaking so secretly, so meaningfully, and so very purposefully,
that three days passed by before Mary and Joseph eventually found Him in the
Temple precincts still listening, questioning and, occasionally, speaking about
God.
As you will remember,
Mary reproved her Son with the words:
Son, why have You
treated us this way? Behold, Your father
and I have been anxiously looking for You!
Those words of Mary
were suddenly determinative for Jesus, Who quite deliberately, calmly, and yet
so very decisively said:
Why is it that you
were looking for Me? Did you not know
that I must be in MY FATHER’S house?
(Luke 2: 48-49)
Mary and Joseph did
not understand of course, but they all left together, with the young Son now being led by that
mysterious inner voice as well as – for the present – by the voices of His mother
and presumed father, whom He obediently lived with, worked with, and loved in
their home at Nazareth.
Mary treasured all
these things in her heart for things were never quite the same again: her Son was
manifestly growing in wisdom before and, more and more, with God; and also in His
standing among local people gradually becoming aware of Jesus’ secret ‘something’.
The decisive moment
came when Jesus was near 30 years old. Still
living in Nazareth and working as the son of the carpenter, He heard about His
cousin John the Baptist’s work and pondered in His mind and heart on how God
seemed to be working with John in that work.
Jesus’ pondering was, however, more listening than thinking; and His listening
for that inner voice was always accompanied by His Own prayerful response to,
and longing for, Him Whom Jesus now recognized exclusively as ‘My Father’, (cfr.
Mt: 23:9):
Call no one on
earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.
After years of reading
and learning as He searched the Scriptures for whatever they could tell Him of
His Father in heaven; after years of humbly obeying and fitting-in-with the
events of His ordinary life and duties in Nazareth; after years of prayerful
longing for communion with His hidden Father; Jesus was in no doubt whatsoever
when His Father, the Voice in the depths of His own Being, ultimately spoke to
Him!
Jesus immediately left
Nazareth and went to where John was baptizing in the Jordan in Judea! Jesus went to meet, hear, respond to His
Father now guiding Him to John the Baptist!!
And there, following
His guiding voice, Jesus humbly joined the penitents asking for John’s baptism,
and finally, coming up from the waters of the Jordan, He heard His Father’s
voice from a cloud, and saw the Holy Spirit like a dove come down upon Him (Luke
3:21–22):
After all the
people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven
was opened and the holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well
pleased.”
And there, dear People of God, we have the
fulness of meaning for Jesus’ birth as the God-given Child of Mary, the Virgin
of Nazareth: He comes to be our Saviour, our Redeemer from sin, and to be our Inspiration, showing us the best way to live the new life He has won for us as children of God, seeking to know, love, and serve their heavenly
Father to the utmost:
You shall seek
the LORD, your God; and you shall indeed find Him when you search after Him
with your whole heart and your whole soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Were those the very
words Jesus Himself first took to heart when He began searching and praying to
answer that basic question of His Being in human flesh:
Who is My Father?
