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| “The Nativity” by El Greco, 1603-05 |
Christmas
At the Vigil Mass
For Zion
for Jerusalem
until her vindication shines
forth like the dawn
and her victory like a
burning torch.
Nations shall behold your
vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
you shall be called by a new
name
pronounced by the mouth of
the LORD.
You shall be a glorious crown
in the hand of the LORD,
a royal diadem held by your
God.
No more shall people call you
“Forsaken,”
or your land “Desolate,”
but you shall be called “My
Delight,”
and your land “Espoused.”
For the LORD delights in you
and makes your land his
spouse.
As a young man marries a
virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
and as a bridegroom rejoices
in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in
you.
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Commentary on Is 62:1-5
Isaiah prophesies
the coming of the Christ [Messiah] with several references and images. Christ
is identified as the vindication of Israel
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R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the
Lord.
I have made a covenant with
my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your
posterity
and establish your throne for all
generations.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know
the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD,
they walk.
At your name they rejoice all
the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
He shall say of me, “You are
my father,
my God, the rock, my savior.”
Forever I will maintain my
kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
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Commentary on Ps 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29
Psalm 89 is a
communal lament sung after the defeat of the Davidic King. Because it calls
into question God’s promise made in the strophes cited here where in God
promised David’s throne to stand forever, the community asks God to remember
his promise.
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When Paul reached Antioch
he stood up, motioned with
his hand, and said,
“Fellow Israelites and you
others who are God-fearing, listen.
The God of this people Israel
and exalted the people during
their sojourn in the
With uplifted arm he led them
out of it.
Then he removed Saul and
raised up David as king;
of him he testified,
‘I have found David, son of
Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will carry out my every
wish.’
From this man’s descendants
God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel
John heralded his coming by
proclaiming a baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel
and as John was completing
his course, he would say,
‘What do you suppose that I
am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after
me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’”
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Commentary on Acts 13:16-17, 22-25
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The book of the genealogy of
Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of
Abraham.
Abraham became the father of
Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of
Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father
of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of
Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of
Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the
king.
David became the father of
Solomon,
whose mother had been the
wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of
Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of
Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of
Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of
Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of
Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of
Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,
Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of
Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian
exile.
After the Babylonian exile,
Jechoniah became the father
of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of
Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of
Abiud.
Abiud became the father of
Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of
Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of
Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph,
the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is
called the Christ.
Thus the total number of
generations
from Abraham to David
is fourteen generations;
from David to the Babylonian
exile,
fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to
the Christ,
fourteen generations.
Now this is how the birth of
Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was
betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived
together,
she was found with child
through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he
was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her
to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when,
behold,
the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary
your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy
Spirit
that this child has been
conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you
are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his
people from their sins.”
All this took place to
fulfill
what the Lord had said
through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him
Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the
Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his
home.
He had no relations with her
until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.
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St. Matthew, speaking to a
predominantly Jewish audience who call themselves “Sons of Abraham”, produces
the genealogy of Jesus starting with Abraham. The critical purpose is to show
that Jesus was of the line of King David. This was important as a demonstration
that Jesus was the Messiah as predicted in the prophetic scriptures of the Old
Testament (the “Prophets” as they were known and referenced by the Jewish
audience).
In the final verse of this
reading we see the significance of Hebrew Numerology as the numbers of
generations are counted. Recalling the most perfect number in this symbolic
system is seven (7), we see the product of two sevens in the generations from
Abraham and David, two more between King David and the Babylonian Exile, and
two more from the Exile to the Messiah. Three (the formula for the most, e.g.
holy, holy, holy equivalent to holy, holier, holiest) times the product of two
sevens, this is six (6) sevens, one short of the perfection to be achieved when
Christ will come again.
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Now this is how the birth of
Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was
betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived
together,
she was found with child
through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he
was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her
to shame,
decided to divorce her
quietly.
Such was his intention when,
behold,
the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary
your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy
Spirit
that this child has been
conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you
are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his
people from their sins.”
All this took place to
fulfill
what the Lord had said
through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him
Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the
Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his
home.
He had no relations with her
until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.
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Commentary on Mt 1:18-25
This passage from the beginning of St. Matthew’s
story of the nativity of Jesus Specifically we see Joseph being told by the
angel that he should bring Mary into his home as wife and the paternity of the
child is the Holy Spirit. He is also told the name the child Emmanuel. The
story ends with Joseph accepting the role and the command of the angel. “The
natural genealogical line is broken but the promises to David are fulfilled;
through Joseph's adoption the child belongs to the family of David. Matthew
sees the virginal conception as the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.”
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Children’s Homily:
Has anyone heard a poem that
starts out “T’was the night before Christmas”?
That’s tonight isn’t it? And does
anyone remember who that poem says the children, who were all “nestled in their
beds” were expecting? It was St.
Nicholas! And he arrived in a
spectacular way didn’t he?
Now here’s a question that’s
really hard. Does anyone know why St.
Nicholas, whose feast day was three weeks ago on December 6th would
be coming around on Jesus’ birthday? Who
can tell me what St. Nicholas is best remembered for? He came to children late at night and gave
them gifts. There is a long story about
why he gave them the gifts but St. Nicholas (who was a Bishop by the way and
God probably made him a Cardinal because his suit is red and not purple)
started giving his gifts a long time ago (even before your grandma and grandpa
were born).
Why do you think his habit of
giving gifts to children happens on Christmas now? Who else gave gifts at Christmas? The three wise men – the Magi came to Jesus
and gave gifts didn’t they? We are going
to celebrate that part of the Christmas story in a little over a week from now.
Who else gave a gift on
Christmas? God gave a gift. He had his angels come and tell a whole bunch
of people he was giving a gift. Does
anyone know who he told first (this is trick question now)? It wasn’t the shepherds. It wasn’t the Magi; it wasn’t even the old prophets
although they knew the gift would be given.
I’ll give you a hint; the Archangel Gabriel told someone first? It was the Virgin Mary that was told first
and she had to know first because she was the one who would actually deliver
the gift to the whole world.
Who listened to the Gospel
tonight? The Archangel Gabriel also told
someone else about the present – who was that?
Joseph had to know because he had to take care of his new wife who was
St. Mary and he was also going to have to take care of the gift that was the
baby Jesus while he was growing up.
Think of how great that would have been – to spend all that time with
Jesus while he was growing up.
Isn’t that wonderful? It is not only Jesus birthday but he was the
birthday present as well. So what better
time for St. Nicholas to bring gifts than on the night when we remember God’s
great gift to us.
There’s another part to this
story as well. It’s a birthday and like all birthdays we should give gifts to
the person whose birthday we celebrate.
What do you think Jesus would like as a gift? Remember now, Jesus has the whole world so
what do you think we can give him that he would like? It’s pretty hard to find something he doesn’t
already have isn’t it? Let me give you a
few ideas of what he would like.
He would like to get a card
from you with your very own prayer on it.
That would be something you could give from your heart and that’s what
he really likes (if he had a refrigerator in heaven he’d put it up with a magnet
and leave it there.)
He would like you to do
something nice for your mom and dad or even your brother or sister. He especially like it if you did something
nice for a person who didn’t really like you.
That’s the way Jesus is, he loves everyone.
There are lots of ways we can
give gifts to Jesus and he likes to get them all year long. And guess what? When a long time ago people started to notice
that when they gave gifts to Jesus they seemed to get gifts in return and I’m
pretty sure that’s where the song came from – you know “he sees you when you’re
sleeping, he knows when you’re awake …”
Tonight we say Happy Birthday
to Jesus (only we usually just say Merry Christmas). It should be a wonderful celebration because
it’s when God gave all of us the greatest gift of all – and remember he expects
us to share it!
Pax
[2]
The picture used is “The Nativity” by El Greco, 1603-05
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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