Christmas Homilies for Mass of the Night, the Mass at Dawn and the Mass of the Day 2023

Mass of Christmas Night: This year, we celebrate the 800th Anniversary of St Francis of Assisi erecting a Nativity Scene for the people’s devotion ahead of their celebrations in the Church. Christmas still captures our imagination, and despite our familiarity, there remains a depth to the scriptures. What, then, are we celebrating? The Incarnation – that being God’s intervention into our history, his taking on of our human nature, entering the darkness of our world, to accomplish our salvation.

As Catholics, we understand ‘salvation’ as being ‘saved from the fires of hell’, but as that reality is, hopefully, a long way off, it may not be relevant this evening. Speaking of ‘Caesar Augustus’, Luke shows there are ‘great powers’ having undue influence, telling us to ‘do this or that’, and we may not even be aware of such control, with online algorithms manipulating our commercial purchases.

This evening, we have come to the place where there is no power, to the Crib, to where God is found in the most vulnerable way, that of a tiny child. And his message is not reserved to the powerful but to those often found on the margins. Here enter the Shepherds, considered unworthy, ruffians, who are out at night tending to the sheep. But they are described as ‘watchful’, a virtue praised in the gospel, for this means they are ready to receive God’s word.

When considering the 1st reading, it can be helpful to know about the context of Isaiah’s time. Assyria is on Jerusalem’s doorstep threatening invasion. Do they surrender, look to Egypt for assistance or do as Isaiah exhorts, trust in God who will raise up a new leader, this wonderful counsellor, mighty-God, eternal-father and prince of peace, whose dominion is wide enough to ensure their peace?

In our time, the message is the same: ‘for there is a child born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders…’ who establishes and ‘makes secure for us [our] integrity and justice.’ Lord, ‘you are mighty God and prince of peace’; and so, we eagerly seek the reconciliation won for us on the cross.

Christmas brings us back to the question of ‘who is Jesus?’ The psalm sings, ‘today, a saviour has been born to us; he is Christ the Lord’. Calling Jesus ‘Lord’ is an explicit statement of his divinity, and ‘today’, means that we are not just celebrating something historical, for the Incarnation is a continual event.

Jesus is the fulfilment of the Isaiah Prophecy, despite all the problems in the world, even now in the Holy Land, God is directing the action, even if, for now, we cannot understand all the implications. Brethren, bring your worries and concerns to Jesus, who as the ‘light of the world’, has power to overcome the darkness in our life; reminding us that evil does not win, that the Lord triumphs.

This is the ‘paschal mystery’ that despite his death on the cross it is not the end, but, instead, leads to the resurrection. As St Paul says to Titus, ‘Jesus sacrificed himself for us in order to free us from all wickedness and to purify a people so that it could be his very own and would have no ambition except to do good!’ And what better new year’s resolution could we have than to always try and do good!

God seeks people of ‘good will’, those who hearts are open to be vassals and heralds of peace; but this is not simply the absence of conflict, but the fulness of relationship with God and neighbour. The ‘Word became flesh’ so that we might know more clearly God’s love and take that love to others. The word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature, now and for eternity.

As we continue our prayers for peace, especially in Ukraine and the Holy Land, we take inspiration from Francis of Assisi’s peace prayer, which teaches: ‘where there is hated, let me sow love, where there is injury, pardon, where there is doubt, faith; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy’.

God is ‘Emmanuel’, ‘with us’ in our celebration of ‘Christ’s Mass.’ Tonight, as we sing a new song to the Lord for working his wonders in the incarnation, may we continue to bless his name, as we have together a Happy and Holy Christmas.

Dawn Mass or Shepherd’s Mass: In this ‘Dawn Mass of Christmas’, like the Shepherds, we have hurried to a liturgical ‘Bethlehem.’ And while there are legitimate reasons to join in a Livestream Mass, such as infirmity, sickness, an extra Mass, we have appropriately come ‘in-person’ to ‘adore’ the Lord as ‘the body of Christ’.

Being born in a stable (or perhaps more likely a rocky cave) implies that Christ is born in an unworthy place, which nonetheless provides a private space for a most sacred event. And yet, if we are honest, we are the ones who are truly unworthy to be here: ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the Word and my soul shall be healed’.

We can only be here because ‘the Lord has made it known’ that ‘Christ’s Mass’ is the place where he can be found! From the poverty of Jesus’ birth emerges the miracle in which our redemption is begun. And while the ‘Paschal Mystery’, the death and resurrection of Jesus, is the only true ‘theme’ of every Mass celebrated in the Church, we can say that Christmas is also found in the celebration of the Eucharist, for on the Altar, ‘the Word becomes flesh’ and ‘lives amongst us’ in Holy Communion.

The clues to this divine truth are there for all to see in His Nativity. Christ is born in Bethlehem, a place which means ‘house of bread’ (in Aramaic) or ‘house of flesh’ (in Arabic); and he is ‘lying in the manger’, from the French verb ‘to eat’, and so He is prefiguring the altar, where he will feed us: He is the ‘bread of life…, and ‘his flesh for the life of the world!’

As we sing the Mass together, there is always that echo of a Christmas carol: ‘O come, let us adore him’, yes, in the crib, but profoundly in the Eucharist, in the bread, ‘broken for you’, in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Spoilers! The baby Jesus is wrapped in ‘swaddling clothes’, which the early Church Fathers saw as a clear sign of his burial robes to come. This means that for a Christian, sacrifice will be a constant companion, but paradoxically, we find that in embracing our own cross, it becomes lighter and the means by which we ‘pass-over’ with Christ from death into life.

‘Save us, Saviour of the World, for by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free’; but, if salvation only means saving us from sin and death, that is somewhat inadequate. Yes, ‘save us’ from war, from evil, but also from mediocrity and apathy, two real problems facing God’s people.

Salvation is only the beginning of our living with him in holiness. Salvation is the end goal of the proclamation of the Kingdom, not a geographical area such as Bexhill or Little Common which so consumes our attention, but the depth of our being, the place where our soul finds its eternal rest.

The Shepherds are the first witnesses to the Incarnation, and the first to receive this message of joy; but if they simply return to their fields, unchanged by their encounter with God, what a waste it would be! No, they are so transformed by their encounter with the Holy Family, that they return ‘glorifying and praising God for all that they had seen’.

Like them, we pray, that we leave here enriched by our encounter with ‘the Word made flesh’. The Apostles continue the imagery of the Shepherds, commissioned to gather the Lord’s sheep into Christ’s Flock, the Church. As the Bishop reminds us in the ‘Pastoral Plan’, mission is our priority, an outlook beyond these walls, into the fields, to find the lost sheep. And as, ‘the new light of dawn shines upon us’, may we have a ‘Merry Christmas!’

Mass of the Day: Amid the wonderful nativity plays re-telling the birth of Jesus, this ‘Mass of Christmas Day’ presents to us the ‘Prologue of St John’, as a meditation of God’s revelation, and is such, arguably, the most important Christmas Gospel.

‘In the beginning…,’ Christ, the eternal ‘Word of God’ makes known to us the totality of God. Christmas is a celebration in which the invisible God is made visible, meaning we do not just hear God’s Word, but in Jesus, we see the ‘Word made flesh’, meaning it is impossible to see any separation between God’s Word, Jesus of Nazareth, and Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity.

In his letter to the Church, St John emphasises the disciples have heard, seen, and touched the ‘Word who is Life’, and have made known their experience of the Incarnation to us so that ‘our joy may be complete’. There is, perhaps, no greater expression of this joy, then when we gather for the Eucharist together, especially on these big feasts, such as Christmas and Easter.

As the letter to the Hebrews (our second reading) tells us, God has always been communicating himself to us, through the prophets certainly, but in Christ’s birth, He ushers in a new time of intimacy, and as the angels say a new era of peace: ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to people of good will’.

The gospel, and most especially the prologue, assures us of the absolute centrality of Jesus Christ to our faith; he is the mediator and sum total of God’s revelation, and in the person of Jesus Christ we are bound together into the body of the Church, which is ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic’ and through the ministry of the Church, ‘all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God’.

Of course, the celebration of Christmas fizzles without Easter to come, for the ‘child who is born for us’ is the Saviour. God’s revelation is a work of love: God so loved the world that he sent his only son to be our saviour and redeemer!

Who, then, is Christ for you? Is he just a redeemer, in times past, or he is your life, love and all? In celebrating his first coming today, we actively seek his coming again in glory, participating in ‘the mystery of faith’, that ‘we proclaim your death, O Lord and profess your resurrection, until you come again’.

Our authentic faith should be ‘alive and active’, ‘full of grace and truth’. Its purpose to bring us into ‘fellowship’ or more profoundly into ‘communion’ with the Blessed Trinity. Hopefully, this Christmas, amongst the Turkey and all the trimmings, we will contemplate the question: ‘Why did the Word become flesh?’

Yes, to free us from our sins, a truly necessary mission to restore us to the life of the Blessed but also to show us that union with God is possible. As John writes in the Book of Revelation, the final book of the bible: ‘the marriage of the lamb has come, and his bride [the Church] has made herself ready; to her it has been granted [in baptism] to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’.

And the angel said, ‘write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… these are the true words of God!’ Thus, here in the celebration of ‘Christ’s Mass’ – the Eucharist – we are given a foretaste of the heavenly banquet in Holy Communion, where we receive Jesus Christ, ‘body, blood, soul, and divinity’ to nourish the divine life given to us in baptism, providing our ‘viaticum’, our ‘food for the journey’ home to the Promised Land.

May this feast of Christmas, then, inspire us to our continued proclamation of the Kingdom, especially to those whom we know and love who have not chosen to keep ‘Christ’ and ‘the Mass’ in Christmas. As an ‘Alter Christus’ (another Christ to the world), may our joy of this season show people that the Kingdom is present amongst us, and that following Christ is the source of our eternal joy.

May the sceptre of God’s power rest on us, assuring us of a ‘Merry Christmas!’