Christmas, Year B
First readings: Is 9:2-4, 6-7; 62:11-12; 52:7-10
Second readings: Ti 2:11-14; Ti 3:4-7; Heb 1:1-6
Gospel readings: Lk 2:1-16; 2:15-20; Jn 1:1-18
I once attended a concert guaranteed to “inspire and raise the spirits” at this festive time of the year. The choir’s songs included New Age lines like “I am the one I’ve been waiting for,” “Rise up and claim your innocence,” “Heaven is inside you,” and “I am the spirit of God.”
Christmas is indeed a joyful and festive time, a time to celebrate with all the means at our command: gifts, food, decorations, lights, songs, etc. However, if our joy is not to be hollow and baseless, we must know what we are celebrating.
The Christmas readings say it all. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” “See, your salvation comes.” “The Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.” “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.”
“To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” God has given us his son, “that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own.”
We were guilty. We were slaves. We were in darkness. We were ignorant. We had all gone astray, like sheep without a shepherd. Our supernatural life was dead, and even our natural lives were in ruins.
Only against this background can we see Christ’s coming as an event of great joy. He came as Messiah, anointed by God; as a Saviour, for we needed to be saved; as Redeemer, for we needed to be ransomed from the power of Satan. He came out of his sheer goodness and loving kindness, for in ourselves we were unlovable.
The doctrine of original sin is the reverse side of the good news of Jesus Christ, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The good news is that he is our healer; the reverse side is that we are sick. The good news is that he is our saviour; the reverse side is that we are sinners.
Both sides of the coin are important. The sick must accept the doctor’s diagnosis before they can rejoice in their healing. Slaves must know they are captive before they can welcome freedom. Sinners must understand original sin and be convinced of their guilt before they can rejoice that God has come to save them. To tamper with the doctrine of original sin is to undermine the mystery of Christ, says the Catechism.
At Christmas, true joy comes not from denial of our sickness, ignorance, slavery, or guilt, but from the good news Jesus proclaimed in the synagogue at Nazareth: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore, he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and release to prisoners: to announce a year of favour from the Lord.”
Like Mary, we should treasure these words and ponder them in our hearts. In particular, let us meditate on the words of St. John: “The Word became flesh and lived among us”; and “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
“From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace…. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”
Unlike those poor choir members, we know that heaven is not inside us; we are not innocent; we are not the spirit of God; we are not the one we’ve been waiting for.
However, we are rightly called “the holy people,” “the redeemed of the Lord,” “sought out,” and “not forsaken,” for “a light will shine on us this day; the Lord is born for us; he shall be called wonderful God, prince of peace, father of the world to come; and his kingship shall never end.”
Father Hawkswell is again teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English with new insights, in both print and YouTube form, at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. He is also teaching the course in person on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 4885 Saint John Paul II Way, 33rd Avenue and Willow Street, Vancouver, and Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon in St. Anthony’s Church Hall, 2347 Inglewood Avenue, West Vancouver. There is no presentation next week or the week after; the title of the presentation three weeks from now is “Grace and the Sacraments.” The course is entirely free of charge and no pre-registration is necessary.
