Reflection For Christmas Concert
REFLECTION FOR CHRISTMAS CONCERT
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Around this time of year, people often phone the cathedral or their parishes to ask what time the Midnight Mass will be. In fairness to them, they are not being stupid: the time of the “Mass at Midnight of the Nativity of the Lord” may be reliably at midnight at this cathedral but that is not so everywhere. It’s interesting that, even in the days before Vatican II when all Masses were celebrated in the morning – even the Mass of the Last Supper and the Easter Vigil – people instinctively clung to the main Christmas Mass being celebrated at night. I remember the excitement of being woken up and taken with my siblings, all of us still in our pyjamas, to midnight Mass as a little boy. Going to Mass in the darkness was especially exciting – as was the prospect of presents under the tree when we returned.
Even today, people like to take part in Christmas carols at night, often by candlelight or at least the lights on their iPhones. Our carols tonight sing of the coming Emmanuel as the “Bright and Morning Star”, “scendi dalle stelle – coming down from the stars”, who “in thy dark streets shineth [as] the everlasting Light” upon the Little Town of Bethlehem, and as the bringer of “light and life” who hark, the herald angels sing. Our musical and liturgical instincts to situate Christmas in the darkness are sound ones: for the birth of the Baby Jesus did indeed occur at night. Luke reports that at the time that Mary brought forth her child “there were shepherds, residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night” and Matthew says that wise men saw a star above the place where the Child was (Lk 2:8; Mt 2:9).
From the very beginning of the Gospels, Jesus is celebrated as the light come into the darkness (e.g. Mt 4:16; Jn 3:19-20; 8:12; 12:36; 1Jn 1:7; Eph 5:8,13). Zechariah the Priest sings his Benedictus in praise of the Child who is “the tender mercy of our God, the Dawn who visits us from on high, shining on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Lk 1:78-79). Simeon the Prophet sings his Nunc Dimitis to Him also, calling Him “a light to enlighten the Gentiles” (Lk 2:32). And John the Evangelist joins the chorus, singing of Jesus as the true radiance of God and true Light of men, the light that shines in the darkness, the light the darkness cannot overcome (Jn 1:4-5,9,14). John the Baptist, he explains, and by extension the whole Church, are witnesses to that Light amidst the darkness (Jn 1:6-8).
Well, at one time or another we all walk in darkness. Beyond Blue estimates that 45% of people experience a mental health condition at some stage in life and that in any one year one million Australian adults suffer depression. Apart from clinical conditions, there are those who live in spiritual, emotional or intellectual darkness – grieving, lonely, anxious, sinful, ignorant, insecure – and they are all of us.
Our Church is undoubtedly going through dark times at present. We’ve been rightly shamed by the terrible revelations of the Royal Commission a year ago. Since then, there have been attacks on our sacraments, school funding, legal protections, and leaders.
Today, as we hear the angels in our carols singing glory to God in heaven and peace to people on earth, we know there are some who demand we choose between the two; some who want us to put the Christ-child away with the Christmas decorations, so He has no claim on the year ahead.
Many people walk in darkness; many dwell in a land of deep shadow – so said the prophet Isaiah, 27 centuries ago (Isa 9:1-7; Mt 4:16; cf. Lk 1:79; 2:32; Eph 5:8; 1Pet 2:9). In such times we can easily despair. Or by being battered about one time too many by people or fate we can become insensitive or cynical. When William Chatterton Dix, aged only 29, was struck with a sudden, near-fatal illness and confined to bed for months, he went into a deep depression. Yet out of his near-death experience Dix wrote many hymns, including What Child is This? which we heard today, set to a melody by Thomas Hewitt Jones.
Might we join Dix in hoping for light? At Christmas the people living with darkness in their hearts will see a great light! Those living without music in their souls will hear angels singing on high! Those desperately needing some good news for their minds will hear news of great joy: that a Saviour is born for us, He is Christ the Lord.
We all need Christmas, perhaps the Church especially, right now. We need a purifying light, a heart-warming hope, a heart-expanding love, a promise of peace. The innocent and vulnerable God-in-a-manger says more and better is possible. The still innocent and vulnerable God-on-a-cross,whose last hours like his first will be eclipsed in darkness, speaks to us again of that more and better. For He it is who enables us to step out of the shadows and into the celestial light of Christmas angels, into the radiance of the Risen ones. So let us join the shepherds, who in the darkness of that first Christmas night, dared step into the light of the manger. Let us join the wise men, who followed the star of faith to strange lands and to a Babe their gifts would laud as King, Priest and Saviour.
God bless you all, and may that Christmas Babe bathe you and your loved ones in his perpetual light this Christmas!