Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord–Mass at Night and During the Day
Our Savior, dearly Beloved, was born this day. Let us rejoice. Sadness is not becoming on the Birth Day of Life Itself, which, now that the fear of death is ended, fills us with gladness, because of our own promised immortality. No one is excluded from sharing in this cheerfulness, for the reason of our joy is common to all men. Our Lord, the Conqueror of sin and death, since there was no one free from servitude, came that He might bring deliverance to all.
…Let the sinner rejoice, since he is invited to grace. Let the Gentile exult, for they are called to life. For the Son of God, in the fulness of time, has taken upon Himself the nature of our humanity, as the unsearchable depths of the divine counsel hath decreed, in order that the inventor of death, the devil, by that very nature which he defeated, would be himself overcome.
These words are not mine, but those of Pope St. Leo the Great. He invites us to rejoice at Christmas. But, you may say, Pope Leo the Great didn’t have to deal with COVID-19. He didn’t have to cancel family celebrations. He didn’t have to miss seeing children and grandchildren whom he hadn’t seen in the better part of a year, if not a year or more (though, as a pope, it’s good that he didn’t have children or grandchildren). He wasn’t a waitress who had her job taken away, given back, and then taken away again, just in time for the holidays. He didn’t have to quarantine because a student in his child’s class was diagnosed with the virus.
And that’s all true. Pope St. Leo the Great had his own difficulties–Attila the Hun sacking most of central Europe, into Italy; barbarians sacking Rome; heretics seeking to divide the Church with their errors; emperors being murdered; the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire in the west. But Leo’s happiness wasn’t based upon something transitory or temporary, and certainly not simply on the twenty-fifth day of December. Leo could encourage the people of Rome, to whom he preached this homily, to rejoice because of what we celebrate on the twenty-fifth day of December: the birth in the flesh of our Incarnate Lord.
What we celebrate on Christmas is that God loved us so much that His Eternal Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was born for us in Bethlehem. And that birth is, in itself, great enough news that there is no room for sorrow, because God has become like us so that we can become like Him. How much love does it take for someone in a distant land, not needing anything, perfect in himself, to travel to a far away land in enemy territory, subject himself to all kinds of humiliations, just to be close to us? And yet, that is what God did for us!
And if that wasn’t enough, that little baby, whose birth we celebrate today, would grow and would show even greater love, as He chose not only to become like us in all things but sin, but to die for us, so that we could live forever. Matthew Kelly describes it this way in his Sacrament of Confirmation program called “Decision Point”: there is a virus that is infecting and killing everyone, and try as they might, scientists cannot find a cure. As they try to work out how the virus works, more and more people keep dying. And then, one day, they discover this one person, whose blood contains the antidote to the virus. From his blood, a vaccine can be made that will eventually save everyone on earth from this virus. The only problem is that, in order to make the vaccine, every drop of blood is needed; the person will have to give up his life. That person, not thinking only of himself and how he will be fine, but all the people he can save, agrees to die so that others could live. That Confirmation program was developed years ago, but it hits home even more so now, in the midst of this pandemic.
Jesus’ Nativity is a reason to rejoice, no matter what is happening in our lives and in the world. Jesus’ Nativity is the hope that gives us the strength to keep going, these 9 months after “14 Days to Flatten the Curve.” As Catholics, we don’t live for this world. While we treasure and care for the creation that God has entrusted to us, we have our minds on the world to come. And this “momentary, light affliction,” as St. Paul says, is as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in heaven. We care for ourselves, and make prudent choices about our health, but we don’t obsess and fret about death because Jesus has freed us from the fear of death. Death is not the end, but for those who follow Jesus, a transition to new life, glorified life, joy-filled life.
This is not to make light of the many sacrifices that have been made and are being made by people each day. This is not to brush off the real hardships that many find themselves in during the pandemic. But Jesus’ Nativity is a great reminder that these experiences are not all there is to life. If anything, this pandemic has revealed to us how much we have lived like this life is all there is, and have not focused on heaven enough.
No government official nor any created thing can stop our joy that comes from this day and the hope the newborn Jesus brings to us. Though our celebrations may be smaller, and maybe not happen with family and friends at all, and though we rightly find some level of happiness from our time spent with loved ones, the true joy of today comes the fact that God’s love for us has been revealed in Jesus being born for us to save us from sin and death, and open for us the way to eternal salvation. So “let us rejoice. Sadness is not becoming on the Birth Day of Life Itself.” “Joy to the world! The Lord is come!”