CHRISTMAS: Mass during the Day
(Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John
1:1-18)
What a wonderful evocation of appreciation, joy,
and gratitude Isaiah offers us in the words:
How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims
peace!
The holy city had been under long siege; all
around friendly and dependant cities and towns had been overrun. Hope was as much in evidence as the almost
non-existent food, as low as the few pictures-full of water available from what
had once been deep, brim-top-lapping, cisterns.
The army had gone out to fight indeed, but they left more in desperation
than in expectation; some of the people had cheered them on their way, but
without conviction; prayers also had been offered, but with lips that trembled;
and now those left inside the city walls wait in anxious silence, with hearts
unable to shake off a dark foreboding of what might soon befall them.
Eventually a runner is noticed in the distance by
those watching from the walls. He had
been expected of course. But, as they
watch him, they begin to look at one another in disbelief: this runner is
running strongly, running confidently; he is not pumping his arms in agonizing
effort, he is raising them, waving them exultantly! He is, surely:
Bearing glad tidings, announcing
peace!
At such a sight, first of all the watchmen on the
towers, then, gradually, all the citizens within the walls begin, in unconscious
obedience to those prophetic words of exhortation:
Break out together in song,
O ruins of Jerusalem!
to join in a public delirium of thanksgiving and
praise, while the priests solemnly intone:
The LORD has comforted His people, He
has redeemed Jerusalem!
Now, Jesus comes to us each year at Christmas
like that runner, bringing -- indeed, He Himself being – the supreme cause for
our total joy. Whatever the past year
may have brought along with it, and no matter how miserable our own record might
have been over that period, He comes once again, to re-assure us that our God reigns, despite the
disaffection of many who no longer call themselves His disciples, despite the
increasing mockery of those who have always denied or gainsaid Him, despite the
faint-heartedness of those who look to the Church and doubt … not His presence
there because her dogma still protects them … but the featurelessness of His
presence which their faith does not allow them to discern.
He comes to His Church, as we heard in the second
reading from the letter to the Hebrews, as One:
Who (is) the refulgence of (God’s)
glory and the very imprint of His Being.
And therefore, seeing Him, we can be absolutely
confident and sure that God is both able and willing to reign for us and in us
through her, if we, for our part, are both humble enough to turn away from
ourselves, and faithful enough to turn to Him in all confidence and
sincerity.
Now, this rejoicing unique to the Christian
celebration of Christmas, is much more than mere joy for our heart; for, as our
reading from the letter to the Hebrews told us, Jesus is:
God’s Son, heir of all
things, through Whom He created the universe; Who sustains all things by His
mighty word;
to which, St. John in our Gospel reading, adds
that:
In Him (is) life, and the
life (is) the light of men.
Therefore, Jesus’ coming means not merely present
joy for our heart, but also fulfilment for our whole being, since He is the life and strength of
our being, the light and pattern for our living.
Moreover, when He comes, He manifests to us and
indeed invites us a share in:
His glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
By sharing that glory with us, He wills to
transform all who believe in Him from mere human beings into children of God, as
St. John tells us:
To those who did accept Him
He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His
name.
Children reborn, that is, no longer arising from
merely human stock through the will of our parents before us, but born anew --
of water and the Holy Spirit -- by God’s free gift and our own free will
expressing itself through the obedience of faith.
And it is as such children, reborn of water and
the Spirit, that we too can say with St. John:
The Word became flesh and
made His dwelling among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Father’
only Son, full of grace and truth.
Our right beholding of the glory of the
Word-become-flesh proves that we do indeed share that glory which is His as the
only-Begotten Son of the Father, in Whom we, as the letter to the Hebrews puts
it, are:
As far superior to the angels as the name He
has inherited -- and we have, by adoption in Him, been given -- is
more excellent than theirs.
And so, reborn and renewed in Jesus, sharing His
glory which enables us to live through faith and by His Spirit, our Christmas
joy and hope is crowned and completed by the Father Himself Who now says (2
Corinthians 6:18):
I will be a Father to you,
and you shall be My sons and daughters.
Once reborn in Jesus, and bequeathed the right to
become children of God for all eternity, we have an endowment that we must bring
to maturity by a life of faithful love and grateful obedience. Each year Jesus comes to refresh our hope,
bolster our confidence, and encourage our progress, which is why, during Advent
time Mother Church cries out to us repeatedly:
Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to
meet him! (Matthew 25:6)
Every Christmas morning we do just that, we come
to Church to meet the Lord with lighted lamps that shine with admiration and
love, gratitude and praise,. Ultimately,
the time will arrive – and, at the deepest level, we are preparing for that time
– when the Lord will come to each and every one of us and call us -- as He did
Lazarus in the tomb -- to go forth from this world to meet Him. Let us, therefore, welcome Him this day as we
wish to embrace Him on that our final day, when earth’s fading and fitful light
is seen to be transforming into the dawn of eternal glory.
