The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Mass at Dawn

December 25, 2010

Isaiah 62:11-12  Psalm: 97 Titus 3:4-7  Luke 2:15-20

1. Isaiah introduces us to the Christmas Mass at Dawn with a hymn of joy.  This passage is like a triple layered cake The first layer is the joy of the People of Israel experience as they return from Exile and they are on their journey home. The second layer: Closer to the time of Jesus, while the Jews were expecting the Messiah, this hymn was sung by pilgrims on their journey to Jerusalem at the time of the feast. This feast was most likely the feast of the Harvest. The third layer of joy: After the death and resurrection of Christ, the Christians saw it as the joy of the new Israel, the joy of the Christians at the news of their salvation. This joy is seen as a

• reward and recompense for their faithfulness
• they have a new designation: a Holy People, a Redeemed People, a People whom God has not overlooked.

• Our response is a joyful: A Saviour has been born to us.

2. Our second reading from Titus reminds me of a Jesuit Professor who had come to our Retreat House at Guelph to make an eight day retreat. His spiritual director saw that the Prof was so wound up that prayer would be impossible. The Prof. was told to take a few days and relax. The workaholic Prof replied, “I did not travel 500 miles to waste two days. I need to pray. I need texts for meditation. I need to get my act together before I return to work. Just now I am in a mess and I need to find some order in this chaos.

The Guelph retreat House is on farm land. The Spiritual Director took the Prof to one of the barns. See he bar: there is straw, cobwebs, dust and cow-dung. Jesus was not born in Herod’s palace, but in a mess like this. It is the same mess you and I are in! You want to want to get your act together. Then what? Will you then sit down and have a coffee with God and tell God how to run the universe. When you get your act together, you will have redeemed yourself. You do not need a Saviour. You do not need Christmas.

This is precisely the message that the Letter to Titus gives each one of us.

- we have been saved through no effort of merit of our own.

- we have been saved through water and the Holy Spirit.

This is the message Jesus gave Nicodemus, when that Pharisee came to meet him in the middle of the night.

And so on this Christmas day we should realise that our Salvation is at hand, it has already been achieved. We have been given the mantle “Children of God” With this dignity, we have been made heirs to heaven.

3. The Gospel tells us of the work of our salvation.

- after the Shepherds returned to watch their flocks by night

- after the angels had finished their “Gloria” and returned to heaven

- after the wise men return to the East.

Then the task of the Gospel begins The good news that needs to be proclaimed is  “Today is born for a Saviour – He is Christ the Lord.” Or to use the more version : “Go tell it on the Mountains that Jesus Christ is born”

“We are blessed” - May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed in Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”, God bless Us, Every One!