December 25, 2009
The Nativity of the Lord: Mass During Christmas Day
By
Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes, the Lord restoring
Sing praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout with joy to the King, the Lord. (Psalms 98:4-6)
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word. (Hebrews 1:1-3)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race: the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-4)
Piety
Lord God, we praise you for creating man, and still more for restoring him in Christ. Your Son shared our weakness; may we share his glory, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Concluding prayer, Office of
Study
You’ve probably got a favorite Christmas carol or twenty, and hopefully you got to hear many of them at the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass or at a Christmas Day Mass. Lots of them talk about the sweet innocent little baby lying in a manger, or about his mother, or about the lowly folk who came to see him.
It’s easy for us to imagine the manger scene. We’ve all had babies or held infants. We know that particular smell they have, of freshly born life. But from the first, it was the promise of what Christ would do for us, reconcile us to God, more than the scene at the manger that is so mind-blowingly beautiful and amazing and difficult for us to understand, let alone accept. The birth is the promise of the shining of light through the darkness and of the resurrection—his and our own.
And that’s why, if you think about it, “O Holy Night” may resonate more deeply than some of the other carols we’ve been singing, even though it’s among the more difficult ones to do well. It describes the power of the promise in just eighteen words:
Long lay the world in sin and error pining till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
We live in a sinful world despite the birth of Jesus. But that birth gave us the hope of redemption. So shout out the carols and happy birthdays and thanks and joy, with trumpets and horns and harps, without regard for how well you sing! As far as God is concerned, we all have perfect pitch.
Action
Tell three people about the way you see Christ in them.
