.
I found myself without a Christmas Mass to celebrate this year so I joined the community at Nazareth House and concelebrated with the other priests present. This is the first time in forty years I haven’t celebrated Mass at Christmas, not ideal for me, but a chance to experience liturgy from the perspective of the people.
I made a point of listening carefully to the readings chosen from a Bible of possibilities for the Daytime Mass of Christmas.
For the first time I noticed that the Second Reading is the opening verses of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Then I listened. I really listened.
And I was moved by what I heard.
Read it now as if you were reading the opening sentences of a novel.
.
At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through whom he made everything there is. He is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature…
.
…God has never said to any angel: You are my Son, today I have become your father; or: I will be a father to him and he a son to me. Heb 1
.
What a message. In our time, in Christ, God has spoken. Jesus is THE Word of God.
.
The opening words of any book have to grab the reader and authors often do this by opening with the punch line so that even readers who read no further might bet the point.
.
The Gospel reading of this Christmas Day Mass was more opening words – this time the prologue of the Gospel of John, a text known to some readers as the Last Gospel of the Tridentine Mass.
.
In the beginning was the Word:
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of people,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower. Jn 1
.
And today, Saturday 27 December, is the Feast of John, Apostle and Evangelist. So much I could say – naturally I’m a bit biased here – but I’ll leave it to the first reading of the Eucharist for this Feast.
.
More opening lines, this time the beginning of the beautiful First Letter of John:
.
Something which has existed since the beginning,
that we have heard,
and we have seen with our own eyes;
that we have watched
and touched with our hands:
the Word, who is life –
this is our subject.
That life was made visible:
we saw it and we are giving our testimony,
telling you of the eternal life
which was with the Father and has been made visible to us.
What we have seen and heard
we are telling you
so that you too may be in union with us,
as we are in union
with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We are writing this to you to make our own joy complete. 1 Jn 1
.
Our Christian faith is sensible, literally able to be sensed with both the physical and spiritual senses.
.
Those who seek Christ discover the sensation of hearing Him,
.
…seeing Him with our own eyes
.
…touching Him with our hands.
.
In Christ God is sense-able.
Our family from London has joined us for Christmas. It is a most joyous time but there is sadness as well given they are no longer Christian’s. I wonder if this is just temporary and it’s Gods way of uplifting my love for God and his beautiful gift and the privilege of reading and reflecting today scripture
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
Thanks John; your invitation got me thinking. The other day we celebrated Christmas mass in Sydney. The priest knew he had audience of hundreds of once a year christians and style was colloquial engaging and simple. I contrast that to friends who took their son in law to mass in Tauranga who described the priest as a robot. While God can use any vessel, even scripture was written to grab the readers attention, so all of us, priest or otherwise are powerful conveyors of the Christian message, and so especially at this time as we gather with wider family where there are often diverse views, being a “real” expression of a living but sometimes imperfect faith is something we can offer to those we encounter
I often set ‘God’s intention’ in the place of The word
He gave us a free will. Do I follow his intention because I want to or have to. Love is feat is a great guideline