This is the source where Christians draw their passion to meet all men in every part of the earth and to share their life.

Is 52: 7-10; Salm 97; Heb 1: 1-6; Jn 1; 1-18

1. “The people who walked in darkness … upon those who dwelt in the land of deep shadow …” (Is 9: 1). These words of the prophet Isaiah concern us. Proceeding – or maybe living – in the darkness is hard and we are tired. Wearied and devastated is the world states with an acute realism Chesterton. More or less aware, this is the reason why we have gathered here on this Holy Night: here we search light because: “of the world the desire this is” Chesterton continues.

The light is this “child born for us” (Is 9: 5). In the stable of Bethlehem, as here now, in our resplendent basilica, the light shines. In the stable of Bethlehem as in every church in the world, thousands of years after creation rises the first dawn of the world. With the birth of Jesus the virtue of hope in its infancy grows anew for every man. Christmas is the inexhaustible source of revival – and God knows how much this word is precious today for each one of us -.

2. “And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David” (Lk 2: 3-4). In the meticulous account of the fact that has changed the sense of history the Evangelist Luke records a decisive datum: Joseph belongs to the house and family of David. He describes the origin. Today this information seems irrelevant, because birth is reduced to the mere biological beginning. Instead, it is mainly a genealogical question as John Paul II brilliantly acclaimed. It is, above all, origin and not only a beginning. Each one of us is rooted in the history of his o her generation. And not only, because the origin owns a further vertical dimension: we are created by God. Obscuring this fact means breaking the generation chain. The educational emergency which troubles us today is the result of this interruption.

3. “Mary … gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2: 7). The Greek word used here is found only in one other quotation in the New Testament to designate the room in which the Last Supper was to take place. In the following verses, the proclamation to the shepherds, some facts are repeated: “And this will be the sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2: 12). The description of St. Luke is not an idyllic account, on the contrary it overshadows a deep reflection upon the sense of this birth. In these words there is already a reference to the mystery of the Passion and of the Eucharist.

The Fathers of the Church arrive at saying: “God has reduced himself” to the point of becoming “visible to the eyes, palpable to the hands, portable on the shoulders”. Actually some Fathers use a Greek verb in which the “reducing himself” is connected to his “being impoverished”: God has impoverished himself, he lowered himself, he emptied himself, in order to talk to us the language we speak. Jesus did not only learn Aramaic, as all the children of his country did; Jesus was willing to learn the language through which human creatures could recognize Him.

4. “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son”(Heb 1:1). The Old Testament offers us the letters of the alphabet through which God has revealed himself to men, but only Christ is the Word in whom the old alphabet finds sense and meaning.

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us …” (Jn 2: 14). “He gave himself for us”(Titus 2: 14), up to point of “make himself eatable” in the Eucharistic banquet, involving us in the movement of His self giving.

This is the good news of Christmas: God makes himself familiar to us. And if God is familiar to us, we can surely recognize Him in one way or in another. Through grace the convinced believers are apt to recognize that Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnated Son of God. But, observing attentively we can deduce that every man can recognize Him through the primary experience possible to everyone, that is: being open towards reality and to love our fellow creatures, because as St. Irenaeus declared: “Man is the glory of God”.

And if we recognize him our life changes. In today’s culture signed by trial, His humility becomes a question of simplicity. We all perceive the urgent need of simplifying our life. A simplification which goes from the overcoming of an ill-omened consumerism (we could use the word obscene because it has the same meaning), to the overcoming of complicated and equivocal affective styles, often false. All this causes suffering to the partner and transforms the beauty of love in exploitation and this does not help to experiment a rescuing love, on the contrary it tends to induce the partner in a tying love.

5. Christmas is God’s endlessness charity towards us and through this gift we become charity subjects: “As the objects of God’s love, men and women become subjects of charity” ( Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, 5). As a matter of fact, the horizon of charity is at 360 degrees which goes from all those who live in poverty (and the number of these is in continual increase and preoccupies) to the engaging-passion in the edification of the common good. We must be tireless in wide spreading the reasons of ‘philia’(civic friendship) over all the conflicts even in the ambit of direct political involvement. Moreover, we should not forget that politics – as Paul VI used to say – is the highest form of charity.

6. “The true light that enlightens all men was coming into the world” (Jn 1:9). It is necessary that the light we receive transforms us in sons of the light. The great need which comes to us from this Holy Christmas is to persevere in every relationship without taking anything fore granted and avoiding every never ending prejudice.

His nativity purified ours/ His life taught our life/ His death destroyed our death” (St. Bernard, Sententiae). Baby Jesus, beyond our merits, realizes the deepest desire of our heart. Let us ask the simplicity of the shepherds, the first testimonies of Christmas, that we may prepare an adequate space for Him and go, as they did, to proclaim Him to our fellow brothers: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Is 52: 10). Amen!

Mass During the Day: Is 52: 7-10; from Psalm 97; Heb 1: 16; Jn 1: 1-18

1. “For there is a child born to us, a son given to us” (Is 9: 5). “[So Joseph set out] in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first born. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths….”(Lk 2: 5-6).

Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation: “The Word was made flesh” (Jn 1,14). In the heart of the most impressive and decisive mystery of history there is the normality of a basic experience that every human being endures: a betrothed couple, a pregnant woman awaiting to give birth to her child because the time has come, a birth, a newborn child wrapped in swaddling cloths by his mother…. So, in the Holy Family of Bethlehem every family is reflected and this enables them to rediscover the freshness of their own original portrait – the stable nuptial tie between a man and a woman, public, faithful and open to life – always, even when faced with hard contradictions and sorrowful trials.

2. The simple words “to us” in the First Reading [ a child is born to us “ (Is 9:5)] echoing in the Second Lecture [“He sacrificed himself for us” (Tit 2:14)] and in the announcement to the shepherds according to the Gospel of Luke [“today a Savour has been born to you” (Lk 2: 11)] is repeated every day in every corner of the world where the sacrifice of the Eucharist is celebrated as the Fathers of the Church proclaimed, “He has become man in order to die” for our sake. The joy of Christmas does not need to censor the sacrifice (tomorrow the Church will introduce the figure of saint Stephen, the first martyr). The fullness and the maturity of love helps the married couples to remain united in an indissoluble bond, as any betrothed man or parent here present can proof. The result of the nexus between joy and sacrifice is love. From the unlimited dynamism of the Eucharist, the gift of this Child is continually offered to us so that true peace may flourish. Peace is the unique power able to break violence, always ready to interfere in the personal and social relationships, as well as among men and among peoples. “For all the footgear of battle, every clock rolled in blood, is burnt, and consumed by the fire” (Lk9:4).

3: While we post-modern men have the presumption of prescribing to God the conditions of his revelation, the shepherds are not scandalized to find the Saviour in a manger. As John the Baptist, as the Virgin Mary and many years before as Abraham and many others, are poor in spirit, persons ready to renounce to their personal ideas and expectations to make space to the Other, to God, He who surpasses all our ideas and expectations.

At the proclamation of the angel: “Peace to men who enjoy his favour” (Lc 2: 14) and the upsetting idea of being loved by God, without bearing any deserved title, the shepherds run to the grotto. This great love discovered and accepted makes them good (“Men of good will” as the old good tradition says), and enables them to answer with gratitude. Jesus’ true love enlightens God’s design upon every man and upon the whole human family. It is the key of the destiny of history; the unique and sure criterion to make use of the extraordinary techno-science results without any harm. This love is the source of ecclesial and civil commitment, an indomitable commitment, certain that God leads the course of history in favour of men: “How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation” (Is 52: 7).

4. In the passage of the Letter to Titus which we have just listened, Saint Paul talks about this commitment; he mentions the origin, the features and the ultimate horizon: “God’s grace has been revealed and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race and taught us … we must be self-restrained and live good and religious lives here in this present world, while we are awaiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the Appearing of the glory of our great God and saviour Christ Jesus” (Tit 2: 11-13). The grace already revealed – this Child – educates us to live in a true way our relationship with God (with piety), with others (justly) and with things (with sobriety), while awaiting the glorious return of the Lord at the end of times. From this tension between the already in which He makes himself our companion of life and the not yet of His final return originates our authentic moral action. Therefore, no acquiescent passivity living at the mercy of an absolute lord, nor the presumption of saving oneself by the power of our own works, but the indomitable resumption of he who, thanks to this Child, recognizes himself in an indefectible relationship with the loving Father: “I will be a father to him and he a son to me” (Heb 1,5). This is the perspective in which the whole reality, personal and social extended to its highest level, planetary, must be lived. Everything, even the epochal turn towards which the economic-financial crises is driving us must be faced through a new vision of globalization. This requires that every interested subject, starting with the destitute of the continents still seized by poverty and hunger, must be involved in an incessant dialogue aiming at rightful distribution of material and spiritual goods. The New life-styles can emerge only through a new and joint globalization, starting with those who live near us. Therefore, everyone, starting from those who exercise government responsibilities at every level, ought to be responsible for those who loose their job, often without any social security cushion, the temporarily laid-off workers, the temporary employees and all those who are in need. As every development stage even the present one will cause sacrifices which will surely be felt by the affluent North of the planet. But only the practice of global and articulated justice can realize authentic development and peace in the world.

5. With a grateful and deeply moved heart in front of the Event which we contemplated again in this Holy Night we beseech the Child and His Mother with the words of a Medieval abbot: “Sweet Lord, Sweet Lady, since he is my Lord, my mercy, she is my Lady the door of mercy. May the Mother lead us to the Son, the Son to the Father, the bridge to the bridge-groom, because he is the Blessed God for ever” (Dom Nicholas of Chiaravalle, XII cent.).

(Translation by sr Léonard Azzopardi)

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