“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
25th December 2017.
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MONDAY, CHRISTMAS OCTAVE
Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord
Midnight Mass
Reading 1: Is 9: 1-7 Isaiah foretells what we already know: For a child is born to us, a son is given us. They name him Wonder-Counsellor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. The Saviour-child will rescue his people from darkness and oppression, and enable them to live in security and peace.
Reading 2: Tit 2:11-14 St Paul provides us with the proper response in our life that we ought to follow as a result of Christ’s birth to us.
Gospel: Lk 2: 1-14 We hear Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and the announcement of the birth to poor shepherds watching their flocks.
Dawn Mass
Reading 1: Is 62: 11-12 With the birth of our Lord the Christian people can taste the joy of the exiles returning from Babylon.
Reading 2: Tit 3:4-7 We ourselves did nothing to merit the birth of Christ; rather, God sent his Son out of compassion for us.
Gospel: Lk 2: 15-20 With Mary we are invited to ponder on the deep meaning of the birth of Christ so that, with the shepherds, we may be moved to glorify and praise God.
Day Mass
Reading 1: Is 52: 7-10 This great hymn of exultation at the return of the exiles from Babylon is also a poem of joy for our redemption.“The Lord comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem.” Carried away by his vision, Isaiah cries: “All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.”
Reading 2: Heb 1:1-6 This whole history of God’s dealings with his people in the past was a preparation for the coming of his Son at a particular moment in history. The author of Hebrews gives the prophetic background of the marvellous event we are celebrating: after speaking through the prophets, God now speaks to us “through his Son. . . through whom he first created the universe.”
Gospel: Jn 1:1-18 This is a great hymn to the Word of God, the source of all life, whose coming among us makes us children of God. The eternal Word, the everlasting Light is made flesh and dwells among us, and “we have seen his glory.”
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OUR GREATEST GIFT!
Karl Rahner wrote: “God has come. He is there in the world. And therefore everything is different from what we imagine it to be. Time is transformed from its eternal onward flow into an event that with silent, clear resoluteness leads to a definitely determined goal. When we say, “It is Christmas,” we mean that God has spoken into the world his last, his deepest, his most beautiful word in the incarnate Word, a word that can no longer be removed because it is God’s definitive deed, because it is God himself in the world. And this means: I love you, you, the world and man.I am there. I am with you. I am your life. I am your time.”
Today the Church along with whole creation breaks forth into joy for it has been remade into a new creation through the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The “Word” let there be light (Gen 1:3), which brought forth creation is now spoken again, through the birth of our Lord and Saviour. The light (Jn 1:8), now shines on in the darkness. The light, who gives light to every man has come into the world. The unknown God, is now made known, the Father now reveals himself, through his Son, Jesus. The Word becomes flesh and now dwells among humanity. The Nativity or Christmas is the celebration of this joy - our God becomes flesh and comes to dwell with us, mankind. Christmas not only signifies the love God has for us but also the humility and sacrifice he undertook for our sake. Jesus the light of the world was born so that he may lead us to eternal life. Christmas is not just about the birth of Jesus, but rather the beginning of the love story between God and Mankind, between God and us.
The gospel reading from John indeed has no Bethlehem story narrated. Instead it revolves around one theme that is ‘Word’ (‘logos’ in Greek). Though there is no birth story narrated, no manger, no shepherds around and no star seen; there is deep meaning in the Gospel, which manifests in full the mystery of the incarnation. There are two set of words in the text of today’s gospel which explain to us this mystery: word and flesh, darkness and light.
In the first set i.e. word and flesh, John presents the mystery of incarnation in just few words – ‘and the word became flesh’. The word who is God, who created the entire universe, who is the Supreme Being, who remained as a mystery is now born in the flesh, has become man and manifested himself to the entire humanity. This might make us wonder why would God become human? God became man since he cares about us, he loves us and wants to save us. Thus, as we reflect on the word-flesh aspect of the mystery of incarnation it is not important for us to know ‘how did word became flesh’ which is a mystical story rather let us ponder upon ‘why did word became flesh’ which is indeed a love story.
John also presents the mystery of incarnation by telling us that Jesus is the true light came to live among us in order to drive away the darkness from our lives. We do know have sin darkens the life of human beings. It blinds us, for we are unable to see what is true and right. However, John announces the arrival of Jesus the true light brings sight to us from our blindness. If we don’t open our physical eyes, we cannot see, even though we have sight. In a similar way, Jesus gives us spiritual sight, but if we are unwilling to open our spiritual being to Jesus, we will not be able to see the path to our redemption.
A story is told about Rudolf the reindeer who had a very shiny nose. Rudolf the reindeer had a very big nose which would radiate light and because of this he was estranged by the other reindeers. Santa used to take these reindeer to pull his sleigh to distribute the gifts. However, one Christmas there was dense fog all around arctic and Santa could not find his way. At this instance Santa sees some light, when he goes closer he finds Rudolf. Santa asks Rudolf to join and to lead his sleigh with his shiny nose. And from that day onwards he becomes the world’s best and most famous reindeer. Christ has given us light to cast away our blindness, to avoid the traps of sin, to walk on the path of truth and to work our salvation. But it is not sufficient that the light of Christ remains with only few. As Christ offered his light to everyone here on earth irrespective of caste, religion, gender and age; so also as He is born in us every Christmas we have to radiate the light of Christ to the entire world which is shrouded in darkness.
Christmas is a time filled with many exciting things. Often there are gifts and gatherings, food and good times. But more than anything else, Christmas must be seen as a time for us to step back and take in the deep and rich meaning of this sacred event. We must see, first, that God entered our human condition and, in doing so, is able to identify with all that we experience in life. God understands human life! He lived it. Second, we must understand that the birth of the Savior of the world reveals that each and every one of us is invited to come and meet Him. God humbled Himself in the most profound way so that we could come to know Him and His perfect love for us. Do not be afraid to come to meet Him, love Him, adore Him and get to know Him. Do not be afraid to gaze upon His humble presence and to give glory to God for His blessed coming. May the Lord be with us always as with joyful hearts, may his Word become flesh in us, may his light remove all darkness from our lives and may we accept the gift of Jesus and treasure it as we celebrate Christmas.
Prayer: Almighty God and Father of light. Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night, and now your Church is filled with wonder at the nearness of her God. Open our hearts to receive his life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace. By our communion with God made man, may we become more like him who joins our lives to yours. Amen.
JOYCAT (Joy Catholic) and FURKAT (FurahaKatoliki) wish you all and your families a Blessed Christmas Season. May you discover the wonderful God who confined himself to a stable, so as to reveal himself in his essential meaning as Love. May Jesus be born in your heart, in your family may we become more like Him.