Christmas Dawn Mass, 2023

           

(Isaiah 62:11-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:15-20)

Perhaps the most striking aspect of our Gospel reading this happy morn is the fact that it is all about the shepherds: from beginning to end.  Even when the story leads us into the presence of Mary, Joseph, and the ‘Infant lying in the manger’ the focus still remains on the shepherds, who:

Made known (to Mary and Joseph) the message that had been told them about this Child.

And though mention is next made of Mary herself, nevertheless, the shepherds are not dismissed, for we are told:

Mary kept all these things (told her by the shepherds), reflecting on them in her heart.

And the whole gospel passage is concluded with information concerning the shepherds:

They returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

Notice carefully that final phrase; for the reading could easily have ended:

            They returned glorifying and praising God all they had heard and seen.

But that would not have been enough, those final words nailing our attention to the shepherds were added:

            just as it had been told them.

Why are the shepherds so very, very, important for the beginning of the Gospel story, why are they so firmly established, centre stage, as it were?

Surely the answer is that the Son of God was coming in human flesh that He might shepherd Israel, God’s Chosen People, and that they might become sheep of His flock: the flock whose integrity He would protect and lead to rich pasture, while sparing the ewes that were pregnant and cherishing the lambs still weak; the flock He would protect from all dangers, while searching for and rescuing individuals gone astray, tending the wounded, nourishing the sick, comforting the fearful and calming the foolish.

From the very situation of His birth, therefore, Jesus began His life most emphatically proclaiming: ‘I am (going-to-be) the good shepherd’. 

At today’s third Christmas Mass attention will be directed to the divine Person and heavenly Origin of Jesus, and there our worship will be called for and His glory exalted. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.

But here, at this early morning Mass, our love is provoked – not for the Child as such -- but for Him Who has come to be the promised ‘good shepherd’ for Israel.

Shepherds tending their flocks were often lonely for long periods, regularly sleep-starved; and they had to  be prepared to face up to hyenas, jackals, wolves, and even bears; wielding only their iron-bound cudgels and large knives. 

Meanwhile, they had to be prepared to experience ‘burning heat by day and biting frost by night’ according to the patriarch Jacob who once served as Laban’s shepherd. 

Jesus had, most certainly, a  deep-down regard for, and appreciation of, shepherds; as is shown by His famous words:

            A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

The shepherd’s life was hard and their public esteem was generally low; but Jesus openly acknowledged His admiration for those men willing to lay down their lives for their sheep.  That viewpoint is not generally appreciated today, and can even be attacked as being wasteful of human life.  For Jesus, however, it was, and is, the self-centered person – no matter how cultured or eminent – whose life was (is) supremely wasteful of a God-given opportunity.  A life embracing self-sacrifice to fulfil an obligation of trust, to express commitment to, not mere emotion for, the good – yes, even the good of mute and, at times, stupid, sheep -- evoked such admiration and love from Jesus that, no matter how humble, mis-esteemed or unappreciated by others it might be thought, He most readily saw Himself embodying it: laying down His life for His sheep, unhesitatingly going off into the desert in search of perhaps only one – very stupid indeed – lost sheep (Mary Magdalene and her 7 demons??), and most whole-heartedly rejoicing could He but carry such a lost one back to the flock on His shoulders!

For a true shepherd there was a ‘substantial’ reward quite apart from whatever pittance they might have been able to earn from the owners of the flocks, for a good shepherd loved the sheep of his flock, because he was their shepherd, he was their all in the desert.  And the shepherd was, in turn, loved by his sheep, which could number thousands; and being, of themselves helpless, the sheep were completely dependent on their good shepherd and trusted him implicitly and totally in return.  What is more, living together continually, through ‘thick and thin’ as the saying goes, there was a very strong bond of understanding between them:  the shepherd’s morning call as he led them out to drink was unique and immediately recognizable to the sheep of his flock, and he would often play upon a pipe or flute for them as they walked along the way to water or pasture; indeed, there were individual sheep so tame that they would respond to their name being called by that voice they recognized and trusted.

And so, People of God, we who are thought to be sheep of Jesus’ flock, should aspire to recognize, hear, and most gratefully appreciate the love that filled Jesu’s own Most Sacred Heart from the very first moment of His being amongst us, His future sheep.

What did He expect in return?

Since Jesus came to give, not to receive, and since self-love was totally alien to Him, I think we must conclude that He expected nothing for Himself.  Nevertheless, since His ability-, or opportunity-to-give would ultimately be dependent on mankind’s willingness to receive what He offered, then, out of love for us He must have deeply desired to be received as Shepherd, by the sheep He came so selflessly to serve and save.

Moreover, although Jesus expected nothing for Himself, He most certainly hoped for, strove for, and ultimately died for, whatever the best of human nature could be taught and brought to, offer, give to, and for, His Father.   What so shocked St. John and all the apostolic witnesses to Jesus was that:

He was in the world, but the world did not know Him.   He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept Him. (John 1:10-11)

However, His self-less love for us triumphed over that rejection both on the Cross and in His glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and that triumph has been shared with us by His Gift of His own most Holy Spirit.  Today, Jesus comes anew to us as our Shepherd, offering Himself to us and for us;  and we today, have -- by the power of His Spirit with us and in us -- the opportunity to change the wretched record of current history by giving Him a welcome into our own hearts not unworthy of that relationship between Shepherd and sheep foreshadowed in the stall at Bethlehem those long years ago.  That is why we prayed at the beginning of this Mass:

Father, we are filled with the new light by the coming of your Word among us.  May the light of faith shine in our words and actions. 

St. Paul told us in the second reading that:

The kindness and generous love of God our Saviour appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of His mercy.

God, that is, takes the initiative, He leads, He guides, He calls … it is our part, our duty, and surely, ultimately our joy, to LISTEN, to UNDERSTAND, and to RESPOND.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is a wonderfully happy and most beautiful morning, for the shepherds were invited to the grotto where Mary and Joseph adored the Infant Jesus in manger familiar indeed to shepherds, where the Child was wrapped in swaddling clothes just such as would have been available in the shepherds’ own families; and their unimportant, but truly essential presence, so carefully and repeatedly stressed, assures us of this most beautiful and comforting truth: Jesus wants us to welcome Him this day as our own most loving Shepherd, and become sheep of His pasture: sheep who recognise His voice, trust Him implicitly and whole-heartedly, respond joyfully to His call, and thus come to know how to find peace in His presence and rest confidently in His care, by the Spirit, for love of the Father.