Christmas - Vigil Mass

Matthew’s gospel opens with a rather long and tedious genealogy of Jesus and we might wonder why we need to listen to such a boring list on a joyful night like tonight. Genealogies serve a number of purposes in the Scriptures. On the one hand, they serve to establish the bona fides of the central characters of a story, by confirming their bloodline credentials and anchoring them fully in the tradition of Israel. Another function they serve is to mark the passage of time and set the character in the timeline of Israel’s history. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ genealogy certainly serves both these functions. Regarding the latter function, one of the effects of such a long genealogy is to underline how long Israel has been waiting for the Messiah. The genealogies in the Pentateuch and first and second Chronicles draw the reader through a vast sweep of Israel’s history. In these books from the Hebrew bible, the effect is an impressive array of history that demonstrates how God has been faithful to God’s promises in keeping and protecting the nation of Israel. At the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, the effect is almost the opposite, and one is almost tempted to ask God, what took you so long? Was it really necessary to keep a nation in suspense for so long? Matthew’s genealogy traces Jesus’ roots back to Abraham, the father of the faith. Luke for his part traces Jesus’ genealogy back to the dawn of humanity, beginning with Adam. John in his gospel decides to go back to the beginning of time. Each evangelist in their own way tries to give a sense of the long while that the world has had to wait for this moment. One wonders, if the evangelists had had the benefit of the scientific knowledge we possess today, if they would have decided to begin their gospels with the moment of singularity at the time of the Big Bang, and underline that while the Israelite nation might have been waiting 1200 years for the Messiah, the whole of creation had been waiting for 13.9 billion years for the redemption of creation.

Even though there is no time for God, from our perspective as humans, we might wonder why God needed so much time to prepare for the entry of the Second Person of the Trinity into time by becoming one of us. Indeed after waiting 13.9 billion years and having had 1200 years to prepare the nation of Israel to receive its Messiah, you would have thought that God could have done better than the scene we are presented with of a baby lying in a stable surrounded by sheep and cattle. Truth be told, it all seems a rather slap-dash affair. If God had 1200 years to get Israel hyped up to receive their Messiah, God hasn’t done a very good job of announcing this birth, if the only people who think to visit him are shepherds and pagans (the three wise men). One would have expected a more grand entrance into the world that would have caught people’s attention from day one. If we take seriously the fact that this is exactly the kind of entrance that God wanted for the Redeemer of the world, then we need to reflect on what this says about God’s modus operandi in our world. It should tell us that God prefers to operate in hidden ways, and according to slow processes as God acts in human history.

In the reading from Isaiah for the Midnight Mass, the prophet proclaims the Messiah as the “Prince of Peace,” and yet as we look around the world, we cannot help but notice that 2000 years after Jesus’ coming, the peace that the Messiah was supposed to bring is patently lacking. Now we could claim that this is because some people have hardened their hearts to Jesus’ message and refused to accept him as their Prince of Peace. Once again we are confronted with a God of slow processes. When we think about it, slow processes are often the more loving way to go about bringing transformation into our world. If Jesus had entered our world with a bigger splash and carried out his ministry with a much greater show of power, it is quite possible that he could have whipped the whole of humanity into line. But, in the process he would have had to ride roughshod over the free will of many people who were not ready to accept his message and the kind of community he was trying to bring about. God’s manner of slipping quietly into human history and not making a big splash shows that God is serious about respecting our human freedom. The scene of a baby lying in a manger is a radically non-threatening one. It is one we can easily dismiss, and one which was indeed dismissed by many, including the inn-keeper who decided that a poor man with his pregnant wife was not worth making space for. But non-threatening encounters with the most powerful Being in our Universe are the only way that we can meet God and still come out of the encounter with our freedom intact. To see God in God’s full power would not leave us free, it would instantly transfix us and have us trembling in our boots. We would not dare defy such a beautiful and powerful Being. This is why God chooses to work in slow processes that lightly tug at our heart-strings, but do not compel us in any way. The more we choose to respond in love, the more God allows God’s love to draw us into the whirlpool of God’s way of thinking and acting. The Christmas scene should speak to us of the infinite patience of our loving God.

As we contemplate Christ in the crib, we meet God at God’s most non-threatening and vulnerable. The initiative is wholly on our side as to how we choose to respond. In some ways our response to God’s hidden entry into our human history is quite ironic. Christmas has become perhaps the most celebrated event in the whole history of the world. There is perhaps no equivalent for the fanfare, the expense, the length to which people go and the festivities that surround Christmas. Hopefully our response will not just be festivities, but a real celebration of love, peace, forgiveness, humility, patience and kindness that Jesus calls us to.

Questions for reflection

1. Do I have a sense of the hidden work of God in my life today and in the world?
2. What response do I feel called to give to God as I kneel before the crib and contemplate the fagility and humility of God become human for my sake?