Mass during the Day

Theme: We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in our world, though he was with God the Father before all ages. His birth opens up for us a glorious new identity, as children of God.

1st Reading: Isaiah 52:7-10

The joy of the faithful watchmen, when they see the Lord coming to save his people.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

2nd Reading: Hebrews 1:1-6

The son of Mary is the eternal Son of the Father, the one through whom all things were made.

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Gospel: John 1:1-18

Saint John describes in sublime terms the eternal nature of the Word who became flesh for us.

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

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John . He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known

Light shines in darkness

For the people of the Old Testament, light and darkness were more than natural phenomena. They tended to associate them often with virtue and wickedness in the community, and also with the day of the Lord’s coming. Indeed, at Qumran on the Dead Sea shoreline, during the life-time of Jesus, light and darkness were seen as two opposing kingdoms, and the sun’s victory over darkness was held to be a symbol of the triumph of faith over the blind pursuit of evil. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” So begins the Bible account of the first creation, and when it was ended, “God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good.”

But this original goodness and justice was to be shattered, because our first parents abused the freedom of will granted them by God, so that once again, as the prophet Isaiah says “darkness came to cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.” (Is 60:2), To dispel this darkness, a new creation was needed, and the ideal of goodness and perfection became a living reality, when the light of Christ came into the world. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; for those who lived in a land of deep shadow a light has shone” (Is 9:2). For God, who had created man in his own image and likeness, had now identified with the human race, and by assuming the body of a child in the image of man, had lowered himself and become one of us.)

It has become a tradition to associate snow with Christmas, and when it does come, shrouding everything with its white mantle, a stillness settles over the countryside, especially at night-time. That combination of darkness and stillness was the setting for the first Christmas. As the Book of Wisdom states, “When all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the middle of her course, your almighty Word leaped down from heaven, from your royal throne” (Wis 18:14f). It was as if God was saying a second time, “Let there be light” — let the gloom and darkness, which to such an extent exemplify the fallen and corrupt nature of the human race, be lifted, ushering in a new age of glory to God and peace on earth among all its people. And so an angel of the Lord appeared to some humble shepherds tending their flocks in the enveloping darkness, and the brightness of the Lord shone round them. “Do not be afraid,” the angel reassured them. “Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

We too must listen, listen in the stillness of our hearts, and, like the shepherds, we must hasten, and with eagerness draw near to Christ. “And the shepherds came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.” They “found” implies effort on their part; they had to search. But their search was not in vain. “And seeing, they understood the word that had been spoken to them concerning this child.”

We too must search for Christ, hasten to him with eagerness, and in the quiet times of prayer, when we are alone with God, understanding of our need for Christ will come to us. St Augustine says that prior to conceiving Christ in her womb, Mary first conceived him in her heart, spiritually, by her faith. The Church is referred to as the Spouse of Christ; its members called to be sisters and brothers of Christ. It is more difficult, Augustine goes on, to understand that the Church is the Mother of Christ. But this is also true, and it was Christ himself who first gave it that title, when he declared, “Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt 12:50). The Church is the Mother of Christ in that, by obedience to the will of the Father, she brings Christ into being in the world. But we, its members, are the Church, and so we can give birth to Christ, become mothers of Christ, in this spiritual way, by doing God’s holy will.

***

The Word of Life

Words are important at this Christmas time of the year, both the spoken and the written word. This is especially clear in our efforts to speak to those close to us who are away from us at this time. We make a special effort to speak with members of our families who are living abroad. My sister has been living in the United States for the past twenty five years or more. She rarely gets to Dublin for Christmas but the Christmas telephone call is very important to her. She will make a real effort to connect with all of us by phone. We feel the need to speak with those who are dear to us even if we cannot see them face to face. The written word is also important at this time of the year. Even in this digital age, we continue to write Christmas cards and send them off to people with a written greeting, including people we may not see from one Christmas to the next. In various ways we feel the need to connect with each other at this time of the year; we sense a call to communicate with one another. Language is one of the primary ways that we communicate with each other. Words carry greater significance than is usual in these days and weeks.

Perhaps we attach so much significance to words at this time of the year because we appreciate that the deeper meaning of Christmas has everything to do with communication. The gospel reading this morning puts it very simply but very profoundly, ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory.” We all struggle to express ourselves, whether in the spoken word or the written word. We often end up with the nagging feeling that we haven”t said all we wanted to say or in the way we wanted to say it. We feel that there is a great deal more within us, in our minds and hearts, than we have managed to put into words. God, however, expresses himself fully and completely, so perfectly that the Word God spoke was itself God. It was that perfect Word who became flesh, a human person, whose name was Jesus. The most perfect and precious Word that God spoke became a person. As a result, those who looked on the face of the new born child of Mary and Joseph were looking on the face of God. That child was the complete self-communication of God. Here was a baby who was God”s perfect word to us. That word would unfold itself in the life, death and resurrection of this child. Christmas celebrates the good news that in Jesus God spoke a complete word to us, a word that said all that God could possibly say in human language, a word that was the culmination of all the words that God had spoken before the birth of Jesus. As the beginning of this morning”s second reading puts it, ‘at various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.”

We all know from our own experience the power of words. We understand that words can have a power for good or for ill. They can heal or hurt. They can bring light or cast a shadow. They can energize people or drain them of life. In certain situations especially, we know that we have to be very careful about what we say and how we say it. The Word that God spoke and that became a human person was the most life-affirming word that was ever spoken. It was a creative Word, a word that brought life to everyone who received it, a life that endures beyond this earthly life. There wasn”t any hint of darkness in the word that God spoke and that took human flesh in the person of Jesus; it was full of light. It was light itself. In the words of the gospel reading this morning, ‘the Word was the true light that enlightens everyone.” Those who open their minds and their hearts to this word are bathed in God”s light, the light of God”s love and God”s truth. This was a word that was full of everything good; in the words of the gospel reading this morning it was ‘full of grace and truth.” There was a wonderful abundance about this word. We know from our own experience that the best of human language, the most profound of human words, take time to digest. We find ourselves going back to such words over and over again. This is supremely true of that word of God that became flesh in Jesus. We need to keep returning to it over and over again to receive from its fullness. That is the call which today”s feast makes on us, to keep returning to this rich Word that God spoke and continues to speak to us, and to keep on receiving from its fullness so that we ourselves can become fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself. [MH]