Homily Nativity ABC: Keep Christ in Christmas

 Homily for the Nativity of the Lord 2020-21

Introduction

In the last few days, in many a Catholic rectory and office around the country, the phone has rung and the caller has asked this all-important question: "What time is the midnight Mass?"  And mustering all the patience of a good Catholic the priest or secretary has told them that midnight Mass will start at midnight.

Now I am sure that you did not make that call, since you are at this Mass.  You see, on Christmas Day, the Church gives us four sets of Masses: The Vigil Mass, Mass During the Night, Mass at Dawn and Mass During the Day.  Unlike our anticipated Saturday evening Masses which use the same readings as Sunday, each of the four Christmas Masses has its own proper prayers, readings and gospel, providing us a rich fare of the Word of God.

And so, for my homily today, I would like to reflect on how the four gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), three of whom we hear in the four Masses, each in his own way, tell the story of the birth of Jesus.

Scripture and Theology

Mark, also the shortest gospel, says nothing about the birth of Jesus.  He starts his gospel with the public ministry of Jesus.  It is like skipping the hors d'oeuvres and going straight to the main course.  Mark skips the preliminaries and goes straight to the heart of the matter, which is the teaching of Jesus, his suffering, death and resurrection.  Mark’s gospel is like a biography of Abraham Lincoln that writes just his political life and says nothing about his birth and childhood.

John's gospel is only slightly different.  He too does not tell the beautiful stories about the angels, the shepherds and the baby Jesus in the manger.  Rather he chooses to tell us what it all means.  In the very first chapter of his gospel, he writes a dense theological essay, which we read in the Mass during the Day.  John tells us that God, in Jesus, has come into the world and by becoming a human being, has united heaven and earth.  Jesus has done this by his Word and example, but especially by giving his life on the cross.  We can compare John’s coverage of the birth of Jesus, not to the frontpage news story, but to the editorial on page 8, that gives a commentary on what Jesus’ birth means.

Matthew tells us the story of Jesus’ birth in quite some detail, part of which we read in the Mass at the Vigil, with the long genealogy that traces the ancestry of Jesus back to Abraham.  But Matthew also tells the story with some sadness and foreboding.  Like Mark, for him the birth of Jesus is an introduction to the main story, which is, his death and resurrection.  Matthew hints at this theme when in the Christmas story he writes about the hostility of Herod, the indifference of the Jews, the slaughter of the Holy Innocents and the flight of the holy family into Egypt.  Matthew's gospel is like a novelist who hints at the main theme of the novel at the beginning and then develops that theme throughout the novel.

It is Luke’s gospel that highlights the joyful aspects of the Lord’s birth and does so at some length.  We read from Luke during the Masses at Night and at Dawn.  Luke tells us about “the sky being lit up, an angel of God appearing to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus and a multitude of heavenly hosts singing God’s praise” like we do in the Gloria.  Luke “speaks of tidings of great joy, nothing to fear, peace on earth, and most especially the good news that a Saviour has been born, a Saviour who is both Messiah and Lord.”  We can compare Luke’s gospel to the feel-good feature story of a newspaper.

And so, the different ways of telling the Christmas story, while helping us appreciate the richness of Christmas also tell us that Christmas is really above all about the birth of the Saviour.  That is why we must remember that Christmas is first and fore most about Jesus Christ, as these three catchphrases remind us.

Christian Life

Let us start with Keep Christ in Christmas, a popular campaign sponsored by the Knights of Columbus today, that goes back to the efforts of some Lutherans in the 1920s.  This cliché tries to remind us of what the angel announced to the shepherds that "today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord." Keep Christ in Christmas also reminds us what Matthew's gospel said of the child to be called Emmanuel, which means "God is with us."

Our Christmas festivities mean nothing, if they don't in some way point us to this Saviour, the Word Made Flesh, Emmanuel, Jesus Christ.

·        For example, when you hear the Christmas bells and carols, when you see the wreaths and mangers, the lights and stars do they help you remember that the child born into this world is God's Son, our Saviour?

·        Even the vegetation, the mistletoe and poinsettia, the holly and Christmas tree, does their life remind you of the eternal life, that this new born baby Jesus came to bring about?

·        Let’s not forget about the Christmas gifts and cards, the meal and drink, even Santa Claus; do these Christmas traditions remind you of the glad tidings and gift of life that this infant was born to bring?

Unless our Christmas celebrations draw from or lead us to Christ, we might be celebrating something alright, but it is probably not the Birth of Our Saviour.

If the first catchphrase focuses on the Christ part of Christmas, the second one focuses on the “mas” part of Christmas, asking us to Go to Mass in Christmas.  In other words, among our many Christmas observances, going to Mass must be the most central one, like you have done.  And why do we go to Mass?  Is it simply for the beautiful singing or because our family always goes to Christmas Mass?  No. We come to Mass especially Christmas Mass, to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Saviour.  The only reason for his being born was so that he might die and rise for our sins.  And gift of his life, that is what we celebrate at Mass, proclaiming his death and resurrection, until he comes again.

The third Christmas catchphrase is part of the perennial debate on whether to greet people with "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" or "Merry Christmas."  This seems to be a problem only in this country because several American holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanza and Christmas happen to fall in November and December.  And so, some lump all these holidays together into one big happy holiday season; some others also claim that saying Merry Christmas might offend non-Christians.

But Christmas is not just one other holiday, especially for Christians.  Christmas belongs to a whole other league of holidays, for it is the day when "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, . . . [the day] when grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" as John’s gospel tells us.  From that day onwards, the world has never been the same; from that day onwards, Jesus has revealed God to us, and revealed the way to God.  And so when Christians greet each other, we should not be ashamed to wish each other Merry Christmas, and thus proclaim the joyful tidings, the Good News of the birth of the Saviour, Christ.

In my home country of Uganda, the whole country celebrates Christmas, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims.  Even Muslims who don’t believe that Jesus is God are happy to rejoice with us.  And because they know that this day means something special for us, they will wish us, Christians, Merry Christmas.

Conclusion

This year, as we keep Christ and Mass in Christmas, as we wish each other Merry Christ, we are doing so during the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought sickness and death, loss of livelihoods and jobs, giving up normal ways of relating which other and perhaps even disrupting our Christmas dinner and other traditions.  Does Christmas have anything to say to us about our situation?

One of the things we can still do is watch the common staple of classic Christmas movies such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, It is a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street.  Do you know why these movies are classics?  It is because they have a lasting message, the message of Christ, that even in times of adversity, Christmas is about action, about taking care of each other, especially the neediest among us.  A Christmas Carol, for example, describes Christmas as:

. . . a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creature bound on other journeys.

What these movies tell us in their own secular way, that own sufferings must never allow us to shut our eyes to others, Jesus has already taught us in the widow who gave her last food to the prophet Elijah, or the widow in the gospels gave her two last coins.  But mostly, Jesus even in his birth at Christmas, has taught us to give of ourselves completely.  For despite being born in a feeding-trough for animals, despite being forced to flee to Egypt as a refugee almost as soon as he was born, he came for action, “to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Lk. 4:18-19) to free us from sin and death.  What has this Christmas inspired you to do?  What has this Christmas inspired you to become?