The celebration of Christmas in the Catholic Church has four distinct Masses - the Vigil, the Mass during night, the Mass at dawn, and the Mass during the day, each with its own set of readings. The Gospel for the Vigil Mass starts with the genealogy of Jesus. Some might want to skip over those lines, not wanting to bother with the difficult biblical names.
But we can learn a great deal already from the genealogy. The people of Israel had waited many years for the coming of the Messiah. Indeed, the entire Old Testament period was a time of preparation for Christ. The Israelites were waiting for a great king, a powerful military conqueror, who would subdue their enemies and usher in a new age of glory for Israel. But when he arrived, the Messiah was much more than what they had hoped for, beyond, in fact, their wildest expectations, as we shall see below.
The genealogy also shows how God works in the world. The list includes men and women who were holy, but also ones who fell short. God can work through even imperfect and sinful people to bring about his plan for creation. Even when people deliberately try to thwart his designs, he will still bring triumph out of tragedies. As the saying goes, God writes straight with crooked lines.
Indeed, the Gospel Reading for the Mass during the night also shows that not even the mightiest powers of the world can prevail against God's plan. Christ was born in the political context of the Roman Empire. Though today some might have a sense of nostalgia for that era, the New Testament consistently depicts the Roman Empire as evil, as a ravenous beast devouring the world. In the Gospel Reading, the Emperor is ordering a census, which was a part of the Empire's control over the conquered people.
At the time, the Empire would have seemed invincible to its subjects. As the Christian faith began to spread, the Empire turned its power toward eradicating the Church from the world. But in time, the Roman Empire itself was converted. The City of Rome, once the fulcrum of anti-Christian power, became the seat of the head of the Church, the pope. The mighty infrastructure of the Empire became the means through which the faith was spread to more and more lands. The conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity serves as a powerful reminder of the ultimate victory of God in history.
The description of the birth of Jesus found in the Gospel Readings for the Mass during the night and the Mass at dawn also serves to reorient our values. Jesus was not born to a wealthy, influential family in a great center of power. Joseph and Mary were poor and lived on the outskirts of the Empire, far from the great places of political influence. They had no wealth or clout. They could not even find room at an inn but had to shelter with the animals in a cave that served as a stable.
The angels announcing the Good News of Christ's birth appeared to shepherds, who were considered among the lowest members of society. These shepherds were the ones to greet the newborn Baby Jesus first, not the high and mighty of society. Jesus was truly born amid the most humble circumstances.
And yet it is from his humble birth that the transformation of the world began. Christ overcame the powers of society, of wealth, of political might, of military prowess, and indeed nature itself. Christ established a new order of love, which will come to its complete fruition when he will remake the world at his Second Coming.
At the heart of this new order of love is self-sacrifice. Christ is God Incarnate, who came among us as one of us to offer himself in sacrifice for us. The description of his birth in the Gospel Readings contains important symbolism pointing toward his self-sacrifice. The shepherds tending the flocks were near Bethlehem, in the area where the sheep intended for sacrifice in the Temple were being raised. The fact that these shepherds are the first ones to see the newborn Jesus points toward Jesus being the Lamb of God, who will offer his life in sacrifice to save humanity. Jesus being born in a stable among the animals also underscores this connection.
To follow Christ, we are to give ourselves for one another as well. The sacrifices we will be called upon to make for each other may be small or great. We should start in our own homes, in our immediate circle. Parents caring for their children, spouses working together in the face of the vicissitudes of life, families tending to relatives who are ill, adult children being there for their elderly parents - all these are ways that we might be called upon to give of ourselves. We can then reach out to others, the neighbor who is lonely, the homeless in our communities, those without basic necessities, near or far. The key is to see our lives as not being about self-actualization but about being of service to others, becoming channels of God's love to all those in our lives.
When we do so, we can learn to truly live the message of Jesus of returning good for evil and praying for those who hate us. Catholic spirituality also teaches that our suffering has spiritual value, which we can offer up for others. The most powerful practice is to offer up the spiritual value of our suffering for those who have caused our suffering in the first place. That is what Christ did upon the Cross for humanity, so that is the most Christ-like thing we can do.
But we should not seek to do any of these things through our own strength, but only through the strength of Christ, who continues to offer himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. As we reflect on our faith, we might be temped to say that it was easy for the first disciples because they could see Jesus in person. But we too can see Jesus. He is in the Eucharist, truly present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
He humbled himself to lift us up to his glory. The Israelites were hoping for a great king to establish a resplendent kingdom. The Messiah they expected would be a powerful man, but a man nevertheless. Instead, God Himself became incarnate and came among us. By doing so, he established the closest possible union between himself and the world, between the Creator and his creation. By being baptized and confirmed in Christ and by receiving him in the Holy Eucharist, we enter into closest possible union with God. We become partakers of the inner life of the Holy Trinity, infinite love, for all eternity.
The Eucharist is the greatest present we can possible receive in this life. Christmas presents are forgotten quickly. As people like to say, no one remembers them by Valentine's Day. But the Eucharist is enduring and is offered to us every day at Mass.
This Christmas, let us focus our lives on welcoming this great present, this greatest gift of God into our lives. Let us begin with the appropriate preparation. To begin, we need to be baptized into Christ before receiving the Holy Eucharist. Adults seeking to enter the Church will also be confirmed first. Those who are already in the Church need to make sure that we are spiritually prepared for receiving Christ in Communion. If we are conscious of grave sins that we have committed, we should avail ourselves of Confession first. We should also work on uprooting anything in our lives that is contrary to Christ, so that nothing will stand in the way of the infinite love he offers to us.
Every Mass is like Christmas. Christ comes to us truly each time we receive Communion. Let us welcome him every Sunday - and even more frequently at daily Mass when we can. Let us welcome him as our King, our Lord and Savior. Let us also spend time with Christ in prayer, before the Tabernacle, where the Holy Eucharist is kept. A powerful spiritual practice is to make a Holy Hour, that is to say, to spend one hour in prayer before the Eucharist at least once a week. During that time, we can meditate on the life of Christ, pray the Rosary, read from the Bible, or engage in other forms of prayer. The main goal is to be there in the presence of Christ and to open ourselves up to his love.
Let us also share the great news with the world. I remember reading a post by Sherry Weddell, the director of the Catherine of Siena Institute, back in the 90's. She said, imagine if Christian fundamentalists believed in the Eucharist. They would never stop talking about it. They would fill our culture with references to it. But we Catholics have made the great gift of the Eucharist one of our best kept secrets. Let's change that. Let's tell all the world.
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The full text of the readings for the Nativity of the Lord, Cycle A, can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and Leonard from Wikimedia Commons.
