Christmas Mass Readings: Baby Jesus Prepares You For Battle

If life is a battle — and it is — Christmas is the day before the fighting starts, when we do what is perhaps the most important thing in the battle: Commit to each other and to Christ, our cause.

Here are five takeaways for the The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), drawn from Sunday Readings columns at this site and the Extraordinary Story podcast.

First: The four Mass options for Christmas tell us that we are safe in the hands of Christ the king.

Depending on what Mass you go to, you will hear one of four different accounts of the world that tell you one thing: You are safe in the company of Christ.

You are safe in the arms of the Church, say the readings at the Vigil Mass. The Psalm proclaims God’s all-important covenant with David, and both the Gospel and Second Reading lay out the arguments that Jesus is the heir of David, while the First Reading explains how the Church will carry on the Davidic covenant when God “espouses” his people through his “bride,” the Church.

The world is no match for Christ, say the nighttime Mass readings. The Gospel situates the story not in the history of the Chosen People, but in the history of their Gentile conquerors: Caesar Augustus and the official Quirinius. In the Second Reading Paul declares to Titus, the Gentile church leader in Crete, that Christ is “saving all,” and the First Reading tells us “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” The message: Be not afraid. “Tell his glory among the nations,” as the Psalm has it.

But Jesus has come for you, personally, not just as a group, says the Mass at Dawn. The Gospel describes the shepherds rushing to Jesus as Mary keeps “all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” The Second Reading focuses on Jesus saving us one by one through baptism. Even the First Reading and Psalm get personal, proclaiming joy to “daughter Zion” and “you [who are] just.”

His kingdom lasts for all time, says the Mass during the day. The Gospel is the majestic account of Mystical Christmas, when “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Second Reading declares that Christ is “the refulgence of [God’s] glory.” And the First Reading and Psalm celebrate the final victory of the Messiah “in the sight of all the nations.”

Adam and Eve were given a kingdom where they walked with God, but they handed it away. Ever since, God has been carefully preparing for us to return to it. Christmas is our way back in.

Second: in other words, Christmas is the center of history.

“History is shaped like an X,” said English author Msgr. Ronald Knox. “To us Christians, the first Christmas Day is the solstice or bottleneck of history. Things got worse till then, ever since we had lost paradise; things are to get better since then, till we reach paradise once more.”

This is true of nations: If you look at the places that accepted Jesus Christ, you see them grow greater: more committed to beauty, truth and goodness; more unified; more at peace. Christian places created science, and transformed morality to reject slavery and respect women.

But the faith has also been transformative for individuals: Following Christ throughout history, you find a long line of saints, teachers, doctors, nurses, heroes, public servants, fathers, mothers, champions of the weak and consolers of the afflicted.

The Gospel for Christmas Day puts the contrast starkly. On the one hand, “To those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God. From his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace.” You see their story played out in every Christian holy day from Holy Family Sunday to All Saints.

On the other hand, says the Gospel: “He was in the world … but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” That’s a sketch of another story played out in history, thr story of those who rejected Christ, from the Massacre of the Innocents to the atrocities of our time.

Third: The nativity scene in your parish or home shows how Jesus Christ transforms everything.

With that history in mind, Christmas is a day to go to the creche, and see that God held nothing back, giving his very self to us, and say, “I have nothing to give you that you need, except for the only thing you want: Myself. So I will give you that this Christmas. Today, tomorrow, and forever.” The manger will show you how.

First, you will see faith, hope and love in the manger.

• Faith believes in the One who is not seen — and the glory of God is hidden in the newborn Baby with the poor couple in the stable.
• Hope knows that God is not in the earthquake or the fire, but in a whisper, and this newborn Baby does nothing showy; the power of his presence is all he needs to conquer.
• God is love, and that Love became man — and a newborn baby is nothing but a vulnerable gift, like love itself.

Next, you will see the signs of divinity that God built into his creation.

• All humanity longs for Absolute Beauty — and what is more beautiful than a newborn baby? Christ is Beauty incarnate
• We all long for goodness and innocence — and who is more innocent and purely good than the Christ Child? Jesus is Goodness incarnate.
• Last, we all seek the truth — and the tiny Christ Child, apart from anything he does, attracts attention from kings, shepherds, angels and the stars. Just as you would expect from Truth incarnate.

Last, Jesus Christ  in the manger “is the beginning of our virtue,” says St. Ambrose, “From him each various virtue has taken its origin.”

• He “is the beginning of frugality, for he became poor, though he was rich.”
• “Christ is the beginning of patience, for when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he was struck, he did not strike back.
• “Christ is the beginning of humility, for he took the form of a servant, though in the majesty of his power he was equal with God the Father.”

In other words, at Christmas, we see what Christ wants from us in this life. We also see what we want from him in the next life.

Fourth, Christmas opens our lives to eternity.

When the Catechism describes heaven, it describes Christmas.

Heaven is “communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed”, it says (No. 1024). That’s our parish Nativity scene: Mary, the angels and us, with our loved ones. Heaven is our focus on God, and in the peak of our expressions of generosity to one another — in other words, at Christmas.

Something Pope Benedict XVI wrote points to another way Christmas is like heaven. “We cannot — to use the classical expression — ‘merit’ heaven through our works. Heaven is always more than we could merit, just as being loved is never something ‘merited,’ but always a gift,” he said.

Christmas, of course, is above all about receiving unmerited gifts. We get gifts from each other simply because we exist, and If we accept them with gratitude, Christmas gifts give us the strong sense that there really is such a thing as love in the world, a love that gives without demanding that we prove we are “worth it.”

But of course “those to whom much is given, much is expected.” And that has a consequence, too.

Fifth, that means Christmas is a turning point for each of us.

This day is not only awe-inspiring and sobering — it should change everything. Rejecting Jesus Christ is the greatest tragedy of history, and accepting him is the greatest accomplishment of history. So Christmas is a time to consciously choose Christ. On Christmas at Mass we stand at a crossroads gazing at the future Jesus Christ lays out for us, and face one question.

The four Masses show us four roads that lead to the same place: The winding road through Salvation history, the unexpected trail blazed for the Gentiles, the way of baptism opened for each of us individually, and the road into the very depths of Being in God, forever.

The question is: Will you set out on the road with Mary and Joseph, with the shepherds and the saints of history?

Like the Jewish believers, will you say Yes like Joseph did, the latest in a line of yay-sayers? Like the Gentile converts, will you join the generations that look to Israel for salvation? Like the travelers in Bethlehem, will you look for an encounter with Jesus Christ, today? And will you follow all the way to the stars?

Give Christ your answer when you meet him in communion, and ask him to give you the strength to never turn back.

Image: wikimedia commons

By Tom Hoopes