Living Christmas



Well, after over three weeks of increased prayer and fasting, of mortification and self-denial, we come to this week to give glory and praise to our Lord, Jesus Christ. After confessing our sins and observing our penances, we finally come to these days of rejoicing at the birth of our Savior.

Very few events in the history of mankind have been as monumental as the Incarnation, as the Word made flesh, as God become man. For during this Christmas Season which began just two days ago, we celebrate “the beginning of our redemption” (Super oblata, Christmas Vigil Mass). This is the event that men had been waiting for ever since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden: the birth of the Messiah. All of Jewish history was pointing to this singular event

It was an event of such great magnitude in the history of mankind that it split time. It changed the whole way we view ourselves and human history, because now everything is seen in light of the birth of Jesus Christ. All of human history is recorded either B.C., Before Christ, or A.D., Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord.



Even this week, in the year of our Lord 2002, this event is so sublime, so profound, and so life changing, that every time we Catholics mention it in our prayers, we have to humble ourselves in awe and reverence. This is why we profoundly bow every week as we profess in the Creed, “by the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man.” Every week, that is, except Christmas Day &#0151 and one other day, the Feast of the Annunciation, which we celebrated exactly nine months ago &#0151, instead of bowing, we return to our ancient tradition and genuflect at those profound words, keeping them ever closer to our hearts.

This is the reason for the season, as we’re so fond of hearing these days: the Incarnation. Christ taking on our human nature to redeem mankind. But by taking on our human nature, Christ came to redeem all men. He came to redeem everyone who shares that human nature, which means that all men are called to follow Him. In other words, every single person on the face of this earth is called to be a Christian. No matter how politically incorrect that may sound, that is precisely the meaning of the Incarnation. That is precisely the meaning of this week’s celebration. For it does us no good for “the way, the truth, and the life” to be made manifest, if we do not follow “the way, the truth, and the life”.

We, who are baptized and confirmed in the Holy Spirit, are called to bring that Good News to the rest of the world. We’ve been given the gifts of the Holy Spirit and all the graces we need to fulfill this Christian vocation to bring joy to the world by announcing that the Lord has come. This is our duty. This is our responsibility as people who profess to be Christians. This is how we are to celebrate the Christmas Season. Gifts and parties mean nothing, if they’re not rooted in the message of our salvation, in the message of the birth of the Savior. What’s the point of celebrating Christ’s birthday? What’s the point of celebrating the Christ Mass, if it has no meaning for our eternal salvation?

But, thanks be to God, it does! It has everything to do with our salvation. And there’s no better time and no better way to bring this message to our peers, than through the spirit of Christmas. As believers, as Christians, as people of faith, we’re not here to celebrate some politically correct “Winter Solstice”. We’re here to celebrate the Christ Mass. We’re here to celebrate the birth of the Savior of mankind, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. We don’t flippantly sing Christmas carols, we profess our faith with conviction through song.

When we cried out: “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear”, we weren’t just singing a hymn. We were expressing sorrow for our sins and telling God how lonely we are at the loss of heaven. We mourn because we have been held captive by our sins. But throughout Advent we waited in hopeful anticipation calling Emmanuel to come pay the ransom that would set us free.

And now, “Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.” Indeed, Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel!



So, in these next days we do rejoice and we profess our belief, our faith, our joy once again with conviction through the ancient hymns: “Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heav’n and nature sing.”

“O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the king of angels. Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”

“Hark, the herald angels sing glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” These aren’t just cute Christmas carols, they’re a profession of our faith. They’re theologically profound. They’re a creed. This is what we’re called to point out to people. With the birth of the Christ child, God and sinners have been reconciled. What greater reason can there be for our joy.

We all know how wonderful it feels to be reconciled with someone whom we’ve wronged, whom we’ve hurt in one way or another, to look into that person’s eyes and say “I’m sorry”, and then to hear the words “I forgive you”. Well, behold the Word of God. The Word made flesh and then made bread so that we might know just how real is His forgiveness, just how real is this reconciliation. This is why we rejoice. This is why, and what, and who we celebrate in this Christmas season.

And we celebrate by praising God. Notice how all these hymns give glory to God for sending us His Son. Finally, after four long weeks we once again get to sing one of the oldest Christian hymns of praise, the Gloria. If giving glory to God in the highest is not at the center of our Christmas celebrations, then we’re not celebrating Christmas. We may be celebrating some secular holiday, but we’re not celebrating Christmas. There’s no such thing as a secular Christmas. There’s no such thing as a secular Christ Mass. Secular means worldly, not spiritual, not religious. Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And the Mass is the most spiritual, the most sublime religious experience that any Christian could hope to enjoy in this world. So, a secular Christmas is an oxymoron.

Advent helped us to understand this fact. After spending time properly celebrating the Advent Season, meditating on our sinfulness, recognizing our fallen nature and our need for a Savior, now we can truly and properly celebrate the birth of that Savior. We can properly celebrate it by giving Him all glory and praise.

This is the spirit of the Christmas Season. It’s not about the gifts, it’s about THEE gift. The gift of the Christ child, the “Holy Infant so tender and mild”, given to us freely through the love of our heavenly Father and the humble fiat of Mary our Mother. This is the true gift that keeps on giving. A gift given out of everlasting love.

And now that we’ve received this gift, we’re told to share it, to give this same gift of the Love of Christ to others. It’s the only gift we don’t lose when we give it away. As a matter of fact, it’s the only gift in which we gain more of it when we give it away.

But this gift of love that we give must be in imitation of Him who is Love, in imitation of the love of Christ. Not “love” the four-letter-word that gets thrown around on prime-time television and in soap operas; but “love” the virtue, love as Christ defined it by dying upon the cross.

If you go to daily Mass, then you will recall that every year, yesterday, December 26th, the Church celebrates the Feast of St Stephen, the first martyr for the faith; that every year, today, December 27th, the Church celebrates the Feast of St John the apostle and evangelist, who cared for the blessed virgin and spread the good news of Jesus Christ through his preaching and teaching; that every year, tomorrow, December 28th, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the young boys massacred by Herod in the second chapter of Matthew, also martyrs for the faith; and that every year, on December 29th, the Church celebrates the Memorial of St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was martyred in his cathedral for defending the freedom of the Church.

So, for three of the four days immediately following Christmas Day, the Church celebrates the feasts of martyrs. And on that fourth day, she celebrates the feast of an evangelist, someone who devoted his life to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. That’s not an accident. It’s a sober reminder to us of what it means for our lives now that the Christ child is born. It’s a sober reminder of how we are to live our lives, if we wish to take advantage of the redemption that He has won for us. The love of Christ means sacrifice. But it’s a sacrifice that leads to eternal reward, to eternal happiness, to a happiness that we cannot find in this world.

What gives us the courage, the fortitude, the charity, the hope, and the faith to live that life of evangelization, that life of Christian martyrdom, that life of Christian virtue is the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist. His presence is just as real in the Eucharist as it was in that manger 2000 years ago. And just as that real presence gave grace to the Apostles and martyrs, and all those who came in contact with Him, it gives us grace today. It gives us the grace to face our temptations and to overcome our sins. And it gives us the grace to be faithful to our baptismal vocation, which is why it’s so important that we receive Him not annually nor semi-annually, but weekly, and even daily, if we can.

How weak and malnourished would our body be, if we only fed it once or twice a year? How weak and malnourished must our soul be, if we only feed it once or twice a year?

So, now, just as everyone from the shepherd boys to the Magi humbled themselves in the presence of our Lord, humbled themselves in awe and reverence, we too humble ourselves in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. We too humble ourselves in awe and reverence. And we, too, say with our Holy Father today: Jesus Christ be praised! May He be forever praised!



© Copyright 2002 Catholic Exchange

(Fr Augustine H.T. Tran attended seminary at the North American College in Rome, Italy and was ordained to the priesthood in 1998. He serves in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, and is currently in residence at St. John Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, while he completes a Canon Law Degree at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].)

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