Christmas

MIDNIGHT MASS

Is. 9:1-6; Tit 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-11

As a battle raged in Europe in World War II, a group of young American soldiers got separated from their company. They were trying to find their way in the forest when, toward evening, they came upon a small house with wisps of smoke coming out of its chimney. As they edged their way to the house, they saw a woman approaching. She told them that since they were hungry and lost, they were welcome to take food and rest in the house on the condition that they respect her visitors. It was close to Christmas and she would like to have peace reign in her house…

When they entered, they saw some young German soldiers at table, eyeing them nervously. But the “commander” of the house was the kind-hearted lady who had earlier told the German soldiers to respect her visitors. The Germans too got separated from their group.

That night, they felt like young boys again, nostalgic of their homes. They sang Christmas carols. They saw each other not as mortal enemies but as fellow human beings longing for peace and the comfort of home.

The next day they went their separate ways after sharing information on how to rejoin their respective companies.

Christmas is a time for peace. Combatants declare ceasefire so soldiers can rejoin their families or celebrate the feast together. Hardened fighters feel more human and more as men of goodwill.

On the commentary on this passage, 365 Days With The Lord 1998 said that Jesus was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus. After defeating Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium, Augustus became the undisputed ruler of the Roman Empire. He was finally able to close the door of the shrine of Janus as a sign that the times of war had ended and great altar for peace was erected to propagandized Pax Augusta, the peace brought about by him. He was also called the “savior of the world.” But the peace he imposed was through domination and conquest, enforced by fear and by public crucifixions of those who would threaten Roman domination.

In contrast, the bringer of true peace would arrive at the little town of Bethlehem. His rule would be marked by love and forgiveness, compassion and freedom. His first appearance to the world was on a feeding through for animals. The first recipients of the news of His arrival, next to His parents, were shepherds whose work was socially considered as lowly and unclean and economically difficult in a place where there was little grazing land. Yet this child would be Savior, Messiah and Lord.

Since one of the messages in this Christmas celebration is that of peace. Fr. Jerry Orbos, a Society of the Divine Word priest (SVD) said that in order to have a peaceful life we would not forget these 4H’s of peace:

H – honesty. Yes honesty is still the best policy. An honest person is a person at peace. A person who pretends is tense.

H – humility. A person finds peace and contentment when he has no air about him, when he knows and accepts himself and does not pretend to be something or someone else.

H – hard work. There is no substitute for hard work. You know how empty it feels to be all from and no substance. Are you hard working or hardly working?

H – holiness. Follow God’s ways and you will have peace. Turn away from God and you will never find peace and one more H,

H – humor. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Learn to hug yourself, warts and all. Smile, laugh and with child-like confidence trust in our Loving Father who has a terrific sense of humor. You want proof? Look at your face in the mirror and look at the face of the person besides you.

Our task is to take hold of this gift of peace, share it with others and reach out to them in the same way that God reaches out to humanity in Jesus: in total compassion, total self-giving and peaceful manner.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; John 1:1-18

As the story goes there was an inquisitive four-year-old who happened to be rooted strongly to the “Why” and “Tell me” stage of life. The boy was helping his father set up the Christmas decorations. Imagine the scene with boxes scattered about and listen to the conversation.

“Daddy, why are there so many lights? What do all these colors mean? Why do you cut branches off the tree and hang them on the door? Did you help your daddy when you were big like me? Tell me again the story of baby Jesus. Why do we bring a tree in the house? Mommy’s going to get mad if you make a mess/”

Does that sound familiar? Well, it continues. The little boy was helping to sort out ornaments and said: “Daddy, what dopes ignore mean?”

The father explained: “Ignore means not to pay attention to people when they call you.”

Immediately the little boy looked up at his father and said: “I don’t think we should ignore Jesus.”

Puzzled, the father knelt closer to his animated son and replied: “I don’t think we should ignore Jesus either, son. I think we should give him our full attention. Why do you say that we ignore him?”

But Daddy, that’s what the Christmas carol says” ‘Oh come let us ignore him.”

Kids sure do say the darndest things, don’t they? But, you know, often we actually get so caught up in the frenzy of preparations, parties, shopping and decorating that we appear to ignore the true meaning of Christmas and fail to prepare a place in our hearts to come and adore him.

Today, we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Lord’s Birth which is popularly known as Christmas. But what is Christmas anyway?

The word Christmas comes from the words Cristes maesse or “Christ’s Mass” Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Savior of all humankind especially for us Christian Catholics. Most historians peg the first Christmas celebration to Rome in 336 A.D. Christmas is both a holiday and a holyday. For us here in the Philippines, it is the biggest event of the year and even feel the beginning of the spirit of Christmas at the month of September. For us Catholics, it’s an important day in our liturgical calendar of the Church since the Lord became incarnate. The Philippine government, schools, business establishments and many more give employees one or two days off at Christmas making it an important holiday. For us Catholics too, it’s one of the big holy feast days celebrated here in the Philippines. Other holy days could be New Year’ day, Ascension, Assumption, All Saints and All Souls Day and the Immaculate Conception. It is such a big deal since as Christians, we follow Jesus and the birth of Jesus is important to us.

We give each other gifts during Christmas, what is the reason? We give Christmas gift because of a tradition that seems begin with the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus. As stated in the gospel of St. Matthew: “On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and incense and of myrrh.”

However, no one was really in the habit of exchanging elaborate gifts until late in the 1800s.

December 25 was the date given to us as the day of the birth of our Lord. Is this true? No one really knows. What is known is that the early Christian leaders in 336 A.D. set the date to December 25 in an attempt to eclipse a popular pagan holiday in Rome called saturnalia that celebrated the winter solstice. Originally, the celebration of Christmas involved a simple mass but over time Christmas has replaced a number of other holidays in many other countries and a large number of traditions have been absorbed into the celebration in the process.

Sometimes we misspelled the word Christmas as Xmas. It is because according to the book, Did You even Wonder by Jeff Rovin, the word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. The use of the shortened form “Xmas” became popular in Europe in the 1500s.