A Saviour has been born to us; who is Christ the Lord.

Midnight Mass 2024

 

Isaiah 9:2-7 A Son is given to us

Titus 2:11-14 God's grace has been revealed to the whole human race

Luke 2:1-14 'In the town of David a saviour has been born to you'

 

Today a Saviour has been born to us; who is Christ the Lord.

(cf Luke 2.11)

 

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Happy Christmas to you, as together we hear the proclamation of the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

We are drawn, tonight, in wonder to the mystery at the heart of the Christian faith: that God - the creator of all that is, be it visible or invisible, known to us or unknown - that same creator God comes to his creation fully, as one of us, and fully as himself: Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary.

 

This wonder is told in old, familiar ways that we know so well from Bible stories, nativity plays and Christmas carols.

 

Yet sometimes it is possible that the stories of angels and shepherds, inns and mangers can obscure the truth of what unfolded in Bethlehem that night which ripples out through the millennia since, down to our day, and beyond.

 

We can think that the account given by St Luke, which we heard just now, is quaint, reassuringly familiar or really meaningful because it comforts us.

 

Or we can think that the stories get in the way of the pure message of Christmas, as told famously by St John who declares, ‘In the beginning was the Word…’

 

But the point of the Christmas story, as told by Luke, is precisely to tell us that the mystery is found in the mess of human existence as much as in the majesty of it.

 

And it propels us on to learn more of him, and what he does in our lives.

 

If we go to Bethlehem to meet Jesus and then go no further - to engage with the rest of his life, teaching, death and resurrection - then we miss the point of the Incarnation, God’s coming to us in flesh and blood.

 

If we only go for the purity of the theory, for the esoteric, and miss out the human and mundane details, then we miss the point that it matters that Christ came in real time, was born in a real place and shares our human experience.

 

The celebration of the birth of the Saviour is not a matter of antique curiosity and warm feelings, but of the urgent, vibrant, transformative presence of the holiness of God in our midst.

 

Our salvation, our being rescued from human entanglement in that which is deathly, corrosive and corrupting - what the Church calls Original Sin - is not a cosy event or a bit of theory, but is truth worked out in the reality of the world in which we exist.

 

Just think of the world into which Christ was born two thousand years ago.

 

The gospel account of his birth is a name check of some of the most tense and unsettled parts of the Middle East.

 

We heard of Syria, annexed to the Roman Empire, some 70 years before the birth of Christ and governed by someone called Quirinius: Syria’s present government is unclear and less stable than the Pax Romana.

 

We heard of Nazareth and of Bethlehem, also Roman occupied: both cities now in the Palestinian controlled West Bank of the river Jordan held by Israel.

 

Jesus Christ was born in real time and in real places, where people live now, and where violence, tension, inhumanity and war abound.

 

The message of peace and goodwill brought by Jesus Christ is not warm story or pure theory but is incarnate reality, in other words, the presence of God in human flesh and blood truly meets the reality of the world.

 

If the Christian message is too heavenly then it is of no earthly use, and if too mundane then there is no capacity for us to be sanctified and made holy: the Incarnation brings heaven and earth, divinity and humanity together for the transformation of what it means to be human.

 

The human heart is still in need of salvation, of hope, joy, peace, tenderness and love.

 

If your love for Christ is dimmed at the moment, or on the brink of flickering out, then know that opening your heart afresh to him will enable you to know and feel that you are forgiven, healed, loved and saved from the chill of being cut off from God’s loving purposes: may this Christmas rekindle your love for Christ.

 

If our celebration of Christmas is to mean anything then in all times, and in all places, we should open ourselves, our souls and bodies, to the Divine Mystery revealed in the child of Bethlehem.

 

Our second reading told us that ‘the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people’ (Titus 2.11).

 

That grace is available to you, tonight, every day of your life, in the  mirk, in the mix ups in the misunderstandings of life.

 

Tonight the rod of oppression of our fears, delusions and conflicts that beat us down, is shattered and we are freed to be a people not walking in darkness, but in the light of life!

 

That’s what drew the shepherds to the manger; that is what the angels sang about; that is what we are invited to receive tonight hidden in bread and wine, yet present to us as we taste his glory and know his peace.

 

Today a Saviour has been born to us; who is Christ the Lord.

(cf Luke 2.11)

 

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