“And the angel said to them, ‘Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”” (Lk 2, 10-12).
This verse encapsulates in itself the very essence of Christmas: the feast of saving joy! This salvation is joyful because the Saviour has come to save us from the shackles of sin and the dominion of darkness. He has come to help us experience the joy of appertaining to the Kingdom of Light.
St Augustine took up this theme of joy in one of his sermons to elucidate how Christ’s birthday is indeed a feast of unending joy! “Rejoice you who are just. It is the birthday of him who justifies. Rejoice you who are weak and sick. It is the birthday of him who makes people well. Rejoice you who are in captivity. It is the birthday of the Redeemer. Rejoice you who are slaves. It is the birthday of the Master. Rejoice you who are free. It is the birthday of him who makes us free. Rejoice all you Christians. It is Christ’s birthday.” (Sermon 184, 2).
Before writing this sermon, St Augustine must have familiarised himself with St Matthew’s gospel which speaks about John the Baptist’s query if the deeds Jesus was doing were in fact the ones the Christ was to perform (see Mt 11, 2-3). Jesus’ answer remains classic: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Mt 11, 4-5).
Christmas is the feast of saving joy because the God that is encountered is the God of salvation. In the person of Jesus Christ God becomes the protagonist of the human person’s redemption. As a matter of fact Psalm 145 becomes Jesus’ life programme. “The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to thee,
and thou givest them their food in due season. Thou openest thy hand, thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. He fulfils the desire of all who fear him, he also hears their cry, and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him” (Psalm 145, 13-20).
The vulnerable sign of God’s love for us, wretched sinners, is the greatest cause of our joy! “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Lk 2, 12). God’s power is made visible and experienced by Him becoming a “babe wrapped in swaddling cloths” and put in a manger! And it is in such humbling birth that the Messianic joy of salvation ardently foretold by the prophets is to be given and received, even in our own days. God’s humility is his power. God’s condescending is his ascending into glory.
In the most extraordinary and humbling sacrament of the Eucharist, God’s Almighty power becomes available to us in order to meet it, dialogue with it and consume it. And this encounter is set within the context of a joyful meal. As Pope John Paul II said: “The Eucharist is a straining towards the goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ (cf. Jn 15:11); it is in some way the anticipation of heaven, the “pledge of future glory”. In the Eucharist, everything speaks of confident waiting “in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ”. Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality” (Ecclesia De Eucharistia, 18).
Bethlehem, “the house of bread”, is a reminder of Jesus’ historic and faith existence. The manger does not only recall the fact that the Son of God was made man and entered history two millennia ago. His presence with us has been intensified through millions of mangers around the world; the altars of Christ’s sacrifice in the sacrament of the Eucharist. In front of these two wonderful manifestations of God’s love for us, fallible humans, each one of us is invited to extol God’s name with the psalmist: “My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever” (Psalm 145, 21). AMEN.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann