25.12.2003 The Birth of Our Lord
Midnight Mass
First Reading: Isaiah 9, 1-3,5-6 Psalm 95 Second Reading: Titus 2, 11-14 Gospel Reading: Luke 2, 1-14
Sing to the Lord a new song! The Psalm invites us to renew our song, our reasons
for joy and ways of expressing it. Our song must be new for life has changed,
there is a new base and new horizons to be contemplated.
The letter to Isaiah describes the new world that has begun this night as a
place of light instead of deep darkness. The word "light" is repeated,
a synonym for joy, joy that makes us sing. All that is new comes from the Child
who "is born for us", a child who "has been given to us".
He is the news that no-one can really full describe or understand. We know more
that Isaiah, even though we perhaps rejoice less. He lived in expectation, in
hope; he suffered the darkness, but proclaimed God's faithfulness that was to
show itself in simple ways, but at the same time clear and lasting and wonderful
for all to see. He talks of a child, a "Prince of Peace", of a son,
a "Wonderful Counsellor", even a "Mighty God"!
We know him or at least we pretend to know him, and yet we live as if he were
not among us, continuing our lives, immersed in our problems, blocked in our
decisions. Perhaps tonight we will let ourselves be moved a little. Before this
child who will one day be an adult, we might abandon a little of our pride,
of our self assuredness. We can begin a new song, without words at first and
then words that will echo those of the angels.
The angels, overheard by the poor, by the shepherds guarding their sheep, begin
the new song. They come to help us. They do not need a saviour and yet they
rejoice with us. Perhaps they are moved by a holy envy because they see God
involved in such great love for us men who are sinners, while they, the angels,
have no benefit! In their wonder they sing the song that says who it is that
has been born: he is the glory of God! God receives glory from that Child: it
will be he who shows the true countenance of the Father, it will be he who makes
the Father beloved of all men, it will be he who brings to the earth His pardon
and His mercy, it will be he will show us the faithfulness of His love! It will
be that Child to spread over the earth the holy Spirit of God and to bathe mankind
in it. He is true glory for the true God! That glory penetrates to the highest
and to the deepest spheres of life that await man and those aspirations that
touch and penetrate eternity.
And again the angels, with the help of the prophecies, see the earth already
bathed in peace. The earth is a constant source of wars, discord, quarrels and
division, because man's egoism moves upon her in many forms. To this earth comes
the glory of God and so love begins to circulate. Love is in the heart of the
Father and on earth is born from faith and, above all, from the trust the Child
has in the Father! Men are all loved by God, even when they are not aware of
it. Now they begin to know: they are loved!
How much suffering and how much emptiness in the hearts and souls of men deriving
from lack of parental love, from the lack of affection in the lives of individuals,
of families, of community as a whole! How many nations that do not know how
much they are loved and suffer from this lack and carry the consequences, characterizing
their lives by an inability to live together at all levels. Well, today, there
is peace, there is One who fills the hearts of those who isolate themselves
because they have never been loved, there is One who fills with love entire
families and nations who have always served divinities with no hearts, incapable
of giving and asking for love! Today the light shows the true face of God, so
that we can see Him as Father, and that same light illumines the faces of mankind
so that we can see them as brothers! Tonight the Child helps many to embrace
each other, for, after many years and centuries we can recognize our brothers
in the light that he brings to the world,
Let us become small as the shepherds, in order to listen to the song of the
angels and to participate in their joy. As with the shepherds, let our lives
be changed: St Paul exhorts us to change. If the child is born, if he is the
glory and the peace of God, let us not be infantile! Let us announce the light
and the peace, letting this great reality reflect from our faces upon the lives
of whoever is running beside us!