Is 9, 1-6; Ps 95; Ti 2.11 – 14; Lk 2.1 – 14?
Midnight Mass
December 25, 2016
1) He is born in Bethlehem, let’s go and kneel in front of Him.
At Christmas during the Midnight and Dawn Masses, the liturgy presents the narration of the birth of Christ according to Saint Luke and reports the annunciation to the shepherds: “Fear not: behold, I announce to you a great joy, which will be for all the people: today, in the city of David, is born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord “(Lk 2, 11).
Today, December 25, 2016, for us “in the city of David is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” This city is Bethlehem, and as did the shepherds as soon as they heard the angelic announcement, it is there that we must hurry.
Today, as in the holy night more than 2,000 years ago, this is the sign that is given: “a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger” (Lk 2, 12). It is a sign striking for its utter simplicity. What is amazing is the absence of any magnificent sign. The shepherds, and we with them, are wrapped and awed by the glory of God, but the sign they receive is simply: “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger”. When they reach Bethlehem, they see nothing but a humble child in a poor manger. The wonder of Christmas is here. Without the angels’ revelation we would not understand that the child lying in a manger is the Lord. And without the baby in the manger, we would not understand that the glory of the true God is different from the glory of man.
The almighty Love is “under the forms of a Child. The Omnipotence as non-power. Non-power as Love, which surpasses everything and gives meaning to everything. (St. John Paul II, Homily of December 24, 1985). God became a little child so that we could understand, welcome and love Him.
This Little One asks us to be loved: let’s see him as the Lord of angels, but let’s love him as a tender child. Let’s fear him as the Lord of power, but let’s love him wrapped in swaddling clothes. Let’s respect Him as the King of heaven, but let us love Him in the manger that is throne and altar. Let’s love him kneeling and seeing in his baby’s smiling eyes the caring eyes of the Crucified and the bright eyes of the Resurrected, praying: “Lord, our God, grant us, celebrating with these mysteries the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deserve, by a dignified behavior, to come in communion with Him “(Prayer after communion). He is the Bread of Life who is born in Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means “the house of bread”.
“This House of Bread is now the Church, where the body of Christ, the true bread, is distributed. The manger of Bethlehem is the altar in the church. Here the creatures of Christ feed. The swaddling clothes are the veil of the sacrament. Here, under the appearances of bread and wine, are the true body and blood of Christ. We believe that in this sacrament is the true Christ, but wrapped in swaddling clothes, namely invisible. We have no greater and more obvious sign of the nativity of Christ than the body we eat and the blood we drink every day by approaching the altar: every day we see, giving himself in sacrifice, the one who once was born for us from the Virgin Mary. Let us therefore hurry, brethren, to this crib of the Lord; but first, as far as we can, let’s get ready through his grace for this meeting, so that every day and throughout our lives, ‘with a pure heart, a clear conscience and sincere faith’ (2 Cor 6: 6), we may sing together with the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Lk 2, 14) “(Aelred of Riveaulx, Address 2 for Christmas).
2) The humility of Christmas.
Without the revelation brought with joy and humility by the Angels, we would not understand that the child lying in a manger is the Lord. And without the baby in the manger, we would not understand that the glory of the true God is different from the glory of man.
This glory is manifested in humility and is understood by humility. This is why the Gospel asks us to imitate the humility of the shepherds who recognizing in a poor child still not speaking, the Logos, the Word, the full meaning of life, worshiped Him as the King of kings who, however, had as throne a lowly manger. That is why we have to imitate the humility of the angels that, in the starry and blessed night, sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among the men whom he loves.”
According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux the angels are vitally inserted in the plan of God, carried out by Christ, not only because they accept this plan of redemption and actively collaborate with their full and unconditional love.
On closer reflection, even before the Incarnation of his Word, God has “used” the angels to prepare men for the great event of the coming of His Son to Earth. Even after the Incarnation of the Word, during his Passion, death and resurrection, the angels were present and active. And even when Jesus returns in glory at the end of time, the angels will announce his final coming.
At this point, again inspired by Saint Bernard, I’d like to make a clarification about the relationship between the Angels and Christ. He is God and the angels are subjected to him, but the Son of God took human weakness and, as a man, he is inferior to them. Here you see their humility: they serve the Word even as a man. They submit to his Lordship, even if human, because the higher will of God the Father takes place, develops and focuses in this event. This is the will of God and they welcome it, prostrating themselves before the child born in Bethlehem. Jesus is a child, a man like us in everything except sin, weak and fragile compared to them who are pure spirits. However, in that human flesh there is the eternal Word of God, their Lord. For this reason they bow, worship him, prostrate themselves, sing his glory and serve him with great humility and availability. Let’s us do the same, because the humility of Christ is served by the humility of the angels and of the shepherds first, and then by the humble three kings.
Christmas is a mystery of humility and it is good if it is inside us, celebrated in the humble silence of the heart and in careful and thoughtful conscience. It is inner and renovator if it makes us grasp the speech that, coming into the world, Jesus made not with words, but with deeds. Which speech? That of humility. This is the fundamental lesson of the mystery of God made man, and this is the first medicine we need (see St Augustine of Hippo, De Trinitade 8, 5, 7, P.L. 42, 952). It is from this root that good life can be reborn.
The invitation to humility will later be repeated by the adult Christ when he says, “If you don’t become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 18: 2).
Today, I would change this sentence: “Unless you become like this child, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
3) Humility and Virginity.
The shepherds have realized with the heart that, in the child who they were seeing in the manger, the promise of the prophet Isaiah had become reality: “A child is born, unto us a son is given. Upon his shoulder dominion rests “(Is 9.5 – First Reading of the Mass of the Night).
The angel of God invites us to start walking with the heart to see the child lying in the manger. Even for us the sign of God is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that He makes himself small for us. That is how he reigns: loving and letting be loved with humble simplicity
Christ does not want anything from us but our love. Through this charity, let’s learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will; let’s learn to live with Jesus and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. “Christian love, or it is humble, or it is not love of God” (Pope Francis, April 8, 2013).
A meaningful way of living this humble love is the one of the consecrated Virgins in the world. These women, following the example of Mary, Virgin and Mother, are imitating Her whose heart and mind are fully humble. It was for her singular humility that God asked this young lady for her “yes” in order to realize his plan of love and mercy.
Mary’s virginity is unique and unrepeatable, but the consecrated Virgins in the world testify that its spiritual significance concerns every Christian. The virgin persons show that those who trust deeply and humbly in God’s love, welcome Jesus and give Him to the world in a daily Christmas.
In the seclusion of their lives, they welcome also and especially the teaching of the great humility of a Master who still does not speak but is really Everything.