Christmas Night 2021
Is 9: 1-6
Tit 2: 11-14
Lc 2: 1-14
“Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.” These words of the angels to the shepherds are the very first gospel of Christmas. They proclaim the good news of Christmas.
A child is born: who would not rejoice with his mother? Which mother, even giving birth in adverse circumstances, is not overwhelmed by the child she receives in her arms? I remember visiting once a young mother who had just given birth to a lovely but severely handicapped daughter (sadly, the little girl had only a few hours to live). This mother was resplendent with joy. She was focussing on the pure gift that her daughter was – indeed any child, any human being, is a gift from God.
There is great joy for Mary and Joseph, but not only for them. ‘A great joy which will come to all the people‘, declare the angels. There is joy for the People of God for the child born in Bethlehem is God-sent. So many prophecies of old suddenly come to mind. Jacob rejoices for the heir to the sceptre of Judah to whom shall be the obedience of the peoples has arrived (Gn 49:10). Israel rejoices for a star has come forth out of his tribes (Nb 24:17). Isaiah is full of joy for the Virgin has conceived and bore a son whose name shall be Immanuel (Is 7:14). Hannah sings together with Mary a Magnificat of praise. Malachi rejoices at the coming of the messenger of the Lord (Ml 3:1). All burst into shouts of joy with Isaiah: “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Is 9:3.6).
These last words bring to mind the unforgettable setting of Handel in the Messiah. For the new People of God has not ceased to rejoice over Christ’s birth. Over the centuries, the same joy has filled the hearts of many. The spreading of the gospel – what we sometimes called ‘evangelisation’ – is the diffusion of this unique joy of Christmas – the joy over the Child. He accomplishes the prophecies; He opens a new era; with Him, in Him, all things are made new. Jesus’ birth is the birth of the new world, fully reconciled with God. It gives us a foretaste of the joy of a world in full harmony with God.
And what about God? What about the Father? Is He not full of joy? If, according to a word of Jesus quoted by St Paul in the Acts, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35), then the Father is the one who has the greatest joy at Christmas, for He gives His only begotten Son, out of love for the world (Jn 3:16).
Or, one should rather say: God’s eternal joy at begetting and giving His Son is revealed to us – and thus becomes ours. And this is the great calling which the Babe addresses us: ‘You, too, enter the great joy of God; you, too, are a child of the Father; you, too, be ever more, in Jesus and with Jesus, the joy of your Father in heaven.’
O Jesus, you are our joy, the joy of the People of God, the joy of the World. With you, we, too, shall become the joy of our Father in heaven, the joy of God.