Christmas - A day for all the world to gaze in wonder
According to the prophecies of Daniel, especially chapter 9, 490 years would pass from the time of the Exile to and the Return from Babylon when the messiah would come. And that is precisely what happened. The angel Gabriel had spoken to Daniel about this messianic coming and it was the angel Gabriel who came to Mary to announce this good news that she was to be the Mother of the Messiah. The Messiah was to be more than just another Man he was to be God himself, Emmanuel, which means God is with us. So the Word was made flesh and was born to a virgin, in the city of David, in a cave-stable to whom only the outcasts of Israel are invited to come. The outcasts were the shepherds of the Jews and the gentiles of the Magi and they alone were invited by the angel to behold a wondrous birth.
Now, if God comes he comes because he knows why he must come, he knows when is the right time to come, he knows where the right place is for him to come, and he knows to whom and by whom he must come; for they must be the right kind of people to whom he must come. The right kind of people because they already know something about God; the right kind of people because they have been waiting for the Christ to come from God; the right kind of people because they know why the Christ must come; and the right kind of people because they know that God himself has chosen them to prepare for the coming of his Christ; and the right kind of woman from whom he would be born. Christmas is about the preannounced one who a whole people have been waiting to come, namely the Christ.
So Christmas is about the Coming and the birth of Christ but it is also about the Mass; that is why it's called Christmas! It's not about a Jolly fat man dressed in coca cola red, nor about elves, nor about fairies and magic; it's about the Nativity of the Christ. So, I want to present to you the Mystagogia of Christmas which reveals a constellation of mystical symbols that connect the Nativity with the Mass.
The Mass is why Jesus is born! The Nativity works as a Mystery in that it both unveils the Mass and is unveiled in the Mass. So, everything and everyone in the story of the Nativity serves literally and symbolically to unveil the mystery of the Mass for which reason we call the day of the 25th December, Christmas Day.
We begin with the manger, where food is fed to farm animals. The baby Jesus is put in a manger because he will be our food, our manna, the very Bread of Life. Indeed, he is born in the town called Bethlehem which means ‘house of bread’. Bethlehem and the manger point to the future when the new house of bread would be built and we will call them Catholic churches wherein one will find the supersubstantial bread of the Eucharist; a bread that is the the Body of Christ and is kept in a tabernacle after it has been transubstantiated on the altar by the Priests ordained by the Lord who utter those sacred words of the Lord, first uttered at the Last Supper.
Jesus is born in the humble dwelling of a stable and reborn in sinners who have humbled themselves in repentance as they admit the poverty of their souls. As they have come to know they are poor in spirit so they are disposed to become rich by grace. Indeed, the animal of humility we call a donkey symbolically points to the penitential rite of the Mass where we humble ourselves before the Lord confessing that we are sinners. The Ox which ploughs the fields and cultivates the soil so that wheat may be sown and vines may be grown pointing to the Offertory Rite of the Mass when bread and wine are brought to the altar. Both the Ox and the Donkey, as beasts of burden, also foreshadow how many human beings are yoked and burdened by slavery to sin. Our Lord will humbly carry the cross for all sinners and will invite them to join him as disciples to discover that in carrying his cross like the ox and the donkey the yoke is made easy and the burden is made light because of the gift of Grace received in Baptism and in the Mass.
Jesus is also wrapped in swaddling clothes which constrains him just as the nails will constrain him on the cross of sacrifice from which the supernatural power of the Sacrifice of the Mass derives and is re-presented on all Catholic altars! The shepherds tend the lambs around Bethlehem which are the same lambs that will be sacrificed in the temple of Jerusalem and so they point to how Jesus is to be the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. He can do this as he is the divine Priest, Altar and Victim of the New Covenant. The Shepherds foreshadow how Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The Sheep are gentle in sharp contrast to the wolves, lions and bears who are their predators. Here is the symbolism of how God comes to the aid of the poor, the widow and the orphan against the predatory powers of the rich, the powerful and the wicked. In other words, the sheep foreshadow how it will be the Meek, the priestly people of good will and reason, who will inherit the earth, not the wolves, the lions nor the bears - not the children of Cain, not the children of perfidy and not the children of rage.
Now, as there was no room at the Inn this too points to a fundamental truth, namely, that many will reject him, the many who will not make room for him in their homes, in their lives nor in the houses of their souls. But the Inn itself points us to those who will make room in the poverty of their souls for the God-made-man at Communion as they intone these words at Holy Mass: ‘“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.’
The Lord Jesus is born hidden from the sight of the powerful and rich but he is visible to servants like angels, shepherds and wise men. They point to the call to service not to status for the ‘Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
The baby Jesus seems harmless but kings and emperors tremble at his birth! God comes as the King of kings and to make a kingdom that overthrows all kings and emperors, all kingdoms and empires; and this Kingdom is made visible on earth in and through the Church. Thus, he comes into a world of danger where the Herods and Caesars of this world seek him, hunt him so as to kill him. Unbeknown to them, however, the powerful are but puppets of more terrible, dark and invisible powers that prey on human beings because they hate these images of God who dwell on earth. These dark powers are Satan’s legions. It is for this reason that the Host of Angels surround the baby Jesus. The Angels are described as Hosts because they are an angelic army who protect the Baby from the dark legions of Satan and reveal to us that we are in a Cosmic Spiritual War. Christmas thus asks us two questions:
Whose army are you going to join?
Which king are you going to follow, Pharaoh, Caesar or Jesus?
Finally, we ask ‘Why does God come to us as a baby?’ Well we can reply by asking ‘what child doesn't love a baby?’ God desires us to become like little children who come to the nativity scenes displayed at all Christmas Masses and in all Christian homes. He wants us all to seek, to know, to love and to serve him like the little children. As Jesus himself said, ‘let the little children come unto me.’
Behold the mystagogical meaning of the feast of Christmas! A feast that blesses childhood, blesses homes, blesses souls and makes the world a place where hope overcomes despair, light overcomes darkness, love overcomes hate and meaning overcomes the nothingness of nihilism.
Now consider this question: What would our childhoods have been like if there was no Christmas? Without Christmas winter would be long, cold and dark and without Christmas our childhoods would be very different indeed it would be a bleak mid winter for every child. But without the Mass, there would not be Christmas either!
For this is what St John Vianney said of the Mass:
‘the world would not survive without the Mass’; ‘Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable.’ It is the Mass that keeps at bay the forces of darkness. Where it disappears men become little better than beasts!
