Christmas Mass During the Day A B C
Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10 Hebrews 1:1-6 John 1:1-18
The readings for Christmas Mass during the day have a note of unrestrained joy over God’s final act of salvation in the coming of Christ, the very word of God, who has come in the flesh to share and redeem our fallen humanity. This mood is most evident in the lyrics of the responsorial psalm.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God. (Ps 98:3c)
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds;
his right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. (Ps 98:1)
The Isaiah reading is a joyful poem addressed to the Jewish exiles living in Babylon whose situation appears to be hopeless. Their homeland is in ruins; the Temple has been destroyed, and they have been living in bondage for several years. Despite the bleakness of their situation, the prophet announces the joyous, good news of the restoration of Jerusalem. The artful poem moves through three stages. First, the prophet rejoices over the arrival of the messenger who brings “the glad tidings” of peace (shalom) for Zion as the God returns to the city in triumph as their “king.”
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings glad tidings,
announcing peace, bearing good news,
announcing salvation, and saying to Zion,
“Your God is king!”
Secondly, he envisions Jerusalem’s watchmen raising a cry and shouting for joy as the Lord begins to restore Zion. “Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry,/ together they shout for joy,/ for they see directly, before their eyes, the Lord restoring Zion.” Finally, he invites the “ruins of Jerusalem” to “break out together in song” because the Lord “comforts his people” and “redeems Jerusalem.” The prophet’s vision is not limited to a narrow nationalism. Jerusalem’s salvation is meant as a revelation to “all the nations.” “The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations;/ all the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.”
The second reading from the beginning of Hebrews emphasizes the completeness and finality of God’s spoken word through the son (Jesus), in contrast to the “partial and various ways” of revelation “in times past . . . to our ancestors through the prophets.” Hebrews is more of a homily than a letter, and it asserts that with the coming of Jesus, “the final age” has arrived in which God’s saving acts have come to their completion.
In this opening section, Hebrews insists on Jesus’ superiority to the angels, whom some were tempted to revere above Jesus because they had not been contaminated by descending into this material world of impermanence and change. Using many of the same concepts as the evangelist John, the author of Hebrews stresses the son’s unique greatness, power, and closeness to God. Like Lady Wisdom in the Old Testament, the Son is the agent of creation (Prv 8:30; Wis 7:22), “the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being” (Wis 7:26), and the “mighty word” which sustains all things. Although Jesus did descend into the world and “accomplished purification from sins,” he now has taken “his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high” where he has received the titles “Son” and “heir” which make him superior to the angels who are commanded to worship him.
The Gospel reading is the prologue of John which is a hymn to Jesus as the incarnate Word (Logos) of God and the Light that has come into a darkened world. It celebrates the whole sweep of salvation from creation to the coming of the Word in the flesh. Periodically, it is punctuated with asides about the role of john the Baptist as witness to Jesus, the light (1:6, 7, 15). The first two strophes speak of the Word’s relation to God (1:1-2) and to creation (1:3-5). John uses several allusions to the first creation story in Genesis: the opening words, “In the beginning,” creation through a word of command, and the references to light and darkness (Gen 1:1-5). Just as in the initial act of creation light entered a darkened world, so in the re-creation of the world darkened by sin, the Word as “the light shines in the darkness,/ and darkness has not overcome it.” The third strophe (1:9-13) speaks of the Word’s relation to humans in the world. It evokes rejection and acceptance, death and rebirth. Although the Word is “the true light, which enlightens everyone,” and “all things came to be through him,” the world did not know him and “his own people did not accept him.” But to those who do accept him, the Word gives the power “to become children of God.” The final strophe (1:14, 16-18) concentrates on the Word’s relation to believers. Like God’s presence through the Tabernacle and the Law in the Old Testament (Ex 25:8-9; Sir 24:4-8), the Word has “made his dwelling among us” and revealed “his glory.” But this presence in the Word become flesh is superior to the law given through Moses. It is a revelation of “grace (love) and truth.” The law was inscribed on tablets of stone (Ex 31:18), and Moses was not allowed to see God (Ex 33:18-23), but now the Son, who has been with God from all eternity, has revealed him.
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
On this feast of the Incarnation, let us rejoice in God’s coming to us in our humanity with all its pain and suffering, joys and delights, sin and hatred. And let us take hope in the continued presence of God with us through the incarnate Son.
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