A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings at Mass for Christmas Day. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
The Liturgical Paradox of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas Day)
There is so much theology and Christology concerning the Nativity of the Lord and the Christ Sending (the Christ Mas) that is beneficial for our reflection and consideration. Yet, this one thing regarding the relationship that the Christmas event has with the liturgy of the Divine Symphony, I would like to address with you on this solemn occasion. That is, the Nativity of the Lord is both timeless and new, and this timeliness and newness are recapitulated in memorial in the liturgy of Holy Mass. This is an apparent paradox; how can something be timeless and new?
This newness of Nativity of the Lord is evident in the readings throughout this day, from the Vigil Mass to the Mass during the Night, the Dawn, and Christmas Day; the readings from the prophet Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah repeatedly proclaim this reality; Isaiah 9:5, “For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 52:8, “Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion.” Isaiah 62:2, “Nations shall behold your vindication, and all kings your glory; You shall be called by a new name bestowed by the mouth of the LORD.” Isaiah 62:11, “See, the LORD proclaims to the ends of the earth: say to daughter Zion, your savior comes! Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.”
The Second Readings from Titus, Acts, and Hebrews also sing of the joy and newness found in God fulfilling His promise in His Son, our Lord, Christ Jesus. The language of newness is communicated in these texts through the language of purification. Titus 3:5-6, “He saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ, our savior.” Titus 3:13-14, “Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.” Acts 13:24, “John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.” Hebrews 1:3, “When he had accomplished purification from sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Mark is the only Synoptic Gospel that does not include the Nativity of the Lord, so on this day we hear about the birth of Christ Jesus from Matthew, Luke, and then Gospel John addresses our Lord as the preexisting Word of God that “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
The rest of us born in the flesh might celebrate what we call a birthday, but what we are really celebrating is the fact that we are a year older post-birth. What we do not do on our birthdays is pull out a picture of the day we were born or pull out the crib we were first laid in and place around our crib little statues of the doctor, nurses, and family members who had traveled from afar to be present that day. We do not celebrate our birth this way because we instinctively know that it would be pretentious to assume that our birth was a complete blessing for all. The nature of sin implies that people have been harmed by the fact that we were born. There is certainly someone on this planet who rues the day we were born. We may not know who they are, but there is someone, somewhere, who is rightly screaming bloody curses at us right now, and we are very aware of that. The second reason we do not dare celebrate our nativity event as we would the Nativity of the Lord is because we realize that nothing permanently changed for the good in this universe by the event of our birth; we seem to instinctually think that our best days are yet to come, rather than thinking our best day was the day we were born. Year fifteen, sixteen, or fifty are more noteworthy than our nativity.
God is different than us and we thank God Himself that He thinks differently than us, and for this, the liturgy is other than the world. Sometimes, at the end of a Novus Ordo liturgy, the priest celebrant or some master of ceremonies might ask if anyone is celebrating a birthday, which is a question that completely ruins what just happened in the liturgy. For, not only is the liturgy not about us, but it does not care about our birth inasmuch as it cares about our rebirth in Christ. Even if it were appropriate to use the Concluding Rite in that way, the only question of importance would be ‘Who is celebrating their rebirth in Christ,’ and to which everyone who received the Holy Eucharist worthily should reply in the affirmative. Therefore, we must not even ask that question because the redundancy of it is silly.
Indeed, the liturgy is the Christ Mas, and at every Divine Symphony we celebrate the sending of Christ Jesus, which makes the Nativity of the Lord timeless. For every day of the year, except one, and for nearly two thousand years, we Catholics have celebrated the birth of our Lord, who made His dwelling with us. Yet, although the Nativity of the Lord is timeless in this way, it also makes us new in Christ. Through the liturgy and the Sacraments, we are reborn in the waters of Baptism, made new again through the Sacraments of Healing (i.e., Confession and the Anointing of the Sick), reborn in a way through the Sacraments of Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders, and made new again through worthy reception of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. Therefore, today, we rejoice in the newness of the Holy Infant and rejoice in the fact that, through the liturgy and Sacraments of the Church, we have been given the timeless gift of that Nativity Event.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
