CHRISTMAS SEASON (C)
Christmas
Midnight Mass [Lk 2:1-14]
24/25
December 2024
The Birth of the Saviour, Messiah and Lord in Utter Deprivation
1. Theme in brief
God’s identification
with human conditions
2.
Focus Statement
At his birth Jesus identifies himself with the rejection, lowliness,
deprivation and powerlessness of humans; and his birth brings salvation to all
people and peace to those on whom God’s favour rests.
3.
Explanation of the text
Luke’s
‘infancy narrative’, begins with the mention of the birth of the Heavenly
King (“the Messiah and the Lord,” 2:11) in a meek, lowly and powerless circumstance
during the reign of the most powerful
earthly king, namely Augustus Caesar. What a
contrast! Jesus and his parents (especially
Mary in her advanced pregnancy) become victims of an arbitrary order
of this earthly emperor that a census of the entire world ruled by him should be taken
(2:1). Of course, Luke wants to tell us that Jesus is born for the whole world
(as a universal Saviour); not only to give glory to Israel but also to become the
light of revelation to the Gentiles (2:32). Further he wants to
show that the Jewish expectations of Messiah coming from David’s dynasty
are fulfilled as Joseph is a descendant of David (2:4). This explains the hardship and
constraints faced by Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem (Joseph’s ancestral
place) for the registration.
While
they are there, Mary gives birth to her firstborn Son in a manger because
there is no place for
them in the inn (2:7). She wraps him in bands of cloth or swaddling clothes
(2:7, 12). These details tell us that the Son of God faces total humility, rejection, poverty and utter deprivation at his
birth, or takes upon himself these humans conditions..
The
news of the humble
birth of Jesus is first given to the lowly shepherds. The shepherds in Palestine were considered
to be poor, dirty and ignorant of the Law; hence outcasts. By choosing the shepherds to
announce the news of his Son’s birth, God tells us that he has become one with
the despised,
the poor, the lowly and the little ones. The angel who announces the birth
calls it good news of
great joy for all the
people (2:10) because of the Child’s universal mission to save all. According
to the message of an angel of the Lord the reason for their joy is (2:9-10), for
them (1) a Saviour,
who is (2) the Messiah
and (3) the Lord
is born (2:11). The first title (Saviour) denotes that he is born for a divine
mission (that is, to save all people), the second one is that
he is to be confessed as the promised Messiah,
and the third one (Lord) is that he is of divine nature.
The sign given to the shepherds to
recognize the Saviour is a fragile, helpless and
defenceless baby wrapped in all
the poverty of swaddling
clothes and lying with all humility and lowliness in
a manger (2:12).
Soon,
along with that angel a multitude of heavenly hosts appears to announce that
with the birth of this baby at Bethlehem, God is glorified in the highest heaven and the gift
of peace
is promised to people on whom his favour
rests (2:14). And who become the objects of God’s favour? Not the pundits and
religious heads of Jerusalem, but the poor and the despised shepherds. Finally,
it is clear that joy,
salvation and peace are
the greatest gifts offered by God to all people by giving his Son to humankind.
4.
Application to life
From tonight’s gospel, we come to know that God’s
promised Messiah comes to us not as a powerful king but as a powerless, poor
and weak baby.
Yes, not all that glitters is Christmas.
God identifies himself with human
predicament of insecurity, rejection, deprivation and misery. Joseph
and Mary had to face the same predicament of insecurity and rejection due to arbitrary order
of a worldly ruler, namely Augustus Caesar. They are only examples of so many
people in our own times who have to face the same ordeal due to harsh and unjust decisions
of those in power, especially of repressive regimes and of those rulers who
ruthlessly introduce new economic policies at the cost of the poor. The poor
are powerless to change these decisions. They are powerless to organize public
protests because the powerful ones who normally organize such protests are
silent in order to safeguard their own interests. Joseph and Mary were rejected by their
own people who refused to give them place in the inn. Later, Jesus himself was
rejected by his own people in his native place, Nazareth (Lk 4:24). The fourth
gospel (John’s) tells us that he came to his own and his own people did not
accept him (Jn 1:11).
One simple statement in today’s gospel that expresses the extent of
God’s humility out of his boundless love for us and challenges our love for others is this: “She (Mary) gave birth
to her firstborn son ….and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for
them in the inn” (2:7). During a cold night, the hearts of neighbours turned
cold and refused to give place or make room for a pregnant woman in an inn at
the time of her imminent delivery. Finally, the Son of God finds warmth among the
animals. Sometimes human beings can sink to the level of beasts. Whenever we
close our eyes to dire needs of others or whenever we refuse to extend a
helping hand to those in dire need, we too sink to the same level. By rejecting
such people we reject Christ who wants to be born today.
Even
today the poor find no place for them in the fast changing economies of
developing countries whose political leaders are more geared to back up the corporate
and business world with the aim of getting political and financial support from
them. Many of the underprivileged and disadvantaged people have to struggle for survival.
Do we give them a place in any of our schemes and relationships? Do we create a
little time or room for them in our own ‘inns’ (places or spaces)? Do we have a
number of excuses for our refusal to share our space (if we have) and things
with them? What about the well-to-do among us? Many of them too are deprived of
love. Mother Teresa used to say, even the rich are poor for love, for being
cared for, for being wanted. What can we do to tackle this spiritual deprivation?
In
spite of harsh realities of life faced by Jesus, it is a joy to discover that he
is born as one of us, resembles us and takes upon himself our fate! God loves
the despised
and deprived
people so much that he becomes one with their destiny. He has come to satisfy our hearts
that are poor and hungry
for love. Have you heard anybody telling you: “Get out from
here. I do not want you.” Have you ever used these or similar words to anybody?
Nowadays, we can notice a sense of hunger for love and affection among children
due to the inability of parents to spend some quality time with them,
especially those parents who are too busy in jobs, politics and business. As the evangelist John says, today also Jesus comes to his own
(disciples) in the guise of the needy, but his own receive him not (Jn 1:10-11). As prophet Isaiah says, a great light has shone on
those who walk in this kind of darkness and gloom of selfishness or lack of
concern (Is 9:1). Will Jesus find place in our ‘inns’ (that is, selfish,
over-busy and loveless hearts), or face outright rejection by us,
just as he faced at his birth?
In
Jesus, God comes to us with all the vulnerability
and helplessness.
He comes as a child “wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger” (2:12). Since
God has stooped
to the lowliest
level of a manger, all of us who want to find him tonight and in real life must
also stoop low. It is clear that God hates pride and comes to smash it, not with
fire and brimstone but with humility and powerlessness. This helpless baby born
to deprived
parents does not pose any threat to anybody. He only says, “Listen! I am
standing at the door, knocking.
If you hear my voice and open
the door, I will come in to you…” (Rev 3:20). To all who receive him he
promises to give the power to become the children of God (Jn 1:12), and those who
reject him lose this wonderful privilege! What about us? Tonight, he comes and
knocks at the doors of our sinful hearts. Will we open the door or keep it
shut? Why there is no room for him in our hearts? As we are preoccupied
with all social celebrations and normal busy-ness, there is no time for him and
no room for him. As Christmas becomes commercialized, there could be temptations to join
those who want to celebrate a ‘Christless’ Christmas and make it purely a
social celebration. If ever we could give more room there could be a little
victory over selfish attitudes.
In
Luke’s account there is nothing spectacular surrounding the birth of the King
of kings. Though we glamorize
the scene of Christ’s birth by surrounding with angels, Luke’s gospel mentions
about no angels around his birth. The angelic hosts are rather found in the
fields around the shepherds. In fact,
Joseph and Mary come to know about the appearance of angels only from the
shepherds. Like them we also sometimes come to know about Christ’s birth not in
the church but out in the fields – among the poor and the marginalized. Why did
God choose
the despised
shepherds to give the good news of his Son’s birth? He is born
among the lowly and the poor, for the lowly and poor, to teach us to be humble
and poor in spirit and show compassion for the lowly and the poor. This shows
God’s first attention,
care and tenderness does not go out to the rich and the powerful, but to those
who are on the margins
of society – the poor, the deprived, the downtrodden, the least and the
last. He is a God who takes the side of
this type of people. Jesus is born in utter poverty and lowliness, and the news
of his birth is first given to the deprived ones precisely because we may take
a new birth with a new attitude to care for the marginalized and show concern
towards their suffering. Ambrose says: "He (Jesus), being rich, became
poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich." Yes,
rich in sharing
and caring
for such people.
Jesus’
poverty and deprivation are a challenge for the greedy who acquire wealth through corrupt means and overexploitation of the natural
resources. We notice how severely the Mother Earth and the whole of creation groan
or cry in agony due to environmental
degradation and break down of ecological balance, just because of
human greed. Christmas reminds us that, since God used our world to send his
Son, this planet is sanctified
by the mystery of incarnation. According to Pope Francis, Mother Earth which is
our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life, and a beautiful
mother who opens her arms to nurture
and sustain
us. “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm
we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her” (“Laudato Si” No.
2). Further he says: “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and
more like an immense pile of filth.” (“Laudato Si” No.66). Further, Jesus’ birth in utter deprivation
is a challenge to tendencies of consumerism
in the modern world. It is a challenge to those who go on craving to acquire
latest goods in the markets instead of sharing some of their wealth with the poor.
Moreover, the humility
and lowliness
of the Babe in the manger is a challenge for the proud who bully/ dominate/ exploit the weak,
the powerless
and the ignorant.
Tonight’s
gospel speaks about three wonderful gifts
that are given by God to humanity by sending his Son: (1) the gift of joy (2:10); (2)
the gift of a Saviour (2:11),
and (3) the gift of peace
(2:14). If so, we need to ask: “What is the real cause of our joy tonight?” Our joy is not merely due
to the glitter of decoration, the glamour of new clothes, the mouth-watering
cakes and fascinating gifts, but due to the gift of a Saviour who comes to lift
us to the level of
divinity by totally sharing in our humanity. We rejoice because he is born for all people
– saints and sinners, friends and foes, nationals and foreigners and for all
races and cultures. How wonderful to know that he is not bound or constrained
by human tendencies of narrow-mindedness, prejudices, exclusiveness and
ethnocentrism.
Today,
he comes to save
(liberate) us from all dehumanizing
factors and situations by becoming one of us. Quite often, we are unable to
rise up from our fallen state and become better persons, in spite of our best
efforts. He wants to hold our hands to raise us. Do we extend our hands towards
him? He comes to give peace to those
whom God favours. In tune with the multitude of angels who praised God at the
good news of the Saviour’s birth (2:13), we too glorify him because we,
sinners, have become “those whom he (God) favours,” and those on whom his glory dawns from “the highest heaven,” and
to whom peace is given on earth (2:14)! Is this peace given to us for
safe-keeping or to share it with those who do not have it? It is good to
examine ourselves and see whether we are basically peacemakers or peace-breakers by our way of
talking and acting.
Today’s gospel says that Mary wrapped Jesus in
“bands of cloth and laid him in a manger” (2:7). But today Jesus does not
take birth in a manger. Our broken hearts are mangers where he wants to take birth. He
takes birth in order to remove hatred from our hearts and fill us with
love, to wash away our sins and make us holy, to drive away darkness and give us his light, to rake away unrest and give us peace, to liberate us from all bondages, and to remove hopelessness
and fill us with
hope. But how many of us want to open our hearts to him? He comes with light
and we may want to remain in darkness; he comes to give us divine life
and we want to remain in our sins; he comes to give us peace and we wan to remain in disharmony and division; and he comes to us as a poor and
helpless baby so that we do not keep the poor and the powerless out of our designs. It is good to examine ourselves whether we
seriously try to heal the wounds of brokenness, hatred,
emotional hurts and bitterness.
5.
Response to God's Word
What does Jesus lying in the manger tell us? Is
it not scandalous for God’s Son to be born as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger? How does this utter deprivation and lowliness become a
challenge for us to renounce our tendency towards domination and exploitation
of the weak, possessiveness and consumerism? Do we share our resources with
those who cannot repay any of our help in any way? If there is no place for the
poor in our schemes, how can Christ be born today? Do we try to share the peace
of Christ in a world that is so much broken and divided?
6.
A prayer
Glory to you, O God, in the highest heaven. By
becoming one with us through Jesus, you showered your boundless love on lost
sinners like us. We praise and bless you with the choirs of heaven for giving
us abundant gifts of joy, salvation and peace by giving your Son. Make us
generous so that there may be room for the poor and the rejected in our hearts.
We pray that your poverty and deprivation at birth may challenge us to renounce
our tendency to be greedy and possessive. Let your kind favour rest on us that
we share your peace with others by becoming active promoters of peace and
harmony in our broken world. O Prince of peace, grant us peace. Amen.
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