Christmas Day Mass Homily - Fr. Raymond

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----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Raymond J...
Sent: Tuesday, 25 December 2012, 15:33
Subject: The Two Christmases

THE TWO CHRISTMASES 2012

        If we think of Christmas as the celebration of the Incarnation; the celebration of the Word of God becoming Flesh, then it is right and fitting, of course, that the event should be celebrated publicly by the whole world.  It should be proclaimed aloud from the housetops for everyone to hear, for everyone to learn about for everyone to rejoice in.

        But, by the very intimate nature of this event, it’s also right and fitting that there should  be another celebration, a secret and hidden one, one that would acknowledge quietly the ineffable wonder of this Great Mystery; a wonder too great for words; a wonder to great  for any kind of adequate celebration.  It was a mystery too great for even God’s angels to appreciate.  And in fact there is such a celebration.  And this celebration is found  in the liturgy of the Church, and  it is also found in the liturgy of  the living events of  salvation history and  even in the liturgy of heaven itself. 

        This other hidden celebration of the Incarnation is what I would like to call, the “Other Christmas.”  This “Other Christmas.” isn’t a kind of  “Second Christmas”.  In fact, it was the first of the two Christmases.  It was that most precious moment when the Blessed Virgin Mother first conceived the Word of God in her sacred womb.  This moment was The moment of the Incarnation.  It was the very highest point in human history.  All human history that preceded it was designed by divine providence to lead up to it. And all human history that follows it is moulded and shaped by its meaning.  No matter what happened after that moment, nothing could ever equal the sublimity of it.  It was the very moment when Heaven first touched the earth in an altogether new way; the moment when the Creator bestowed his most loving kiss upon us his creatures.  So let’s compare these two very different celebrations of the Incarnation.

At the first moment,”the annunciation”, it was most intimate and private and secret.  Not only was no one else in the world present, but not even the angel Gabriel was present for this most sacred of moments.  We read first that the angel Gabriel announced: “Behold you will conceive and bear a Son” and then he assured the frightened little Maid by telling her that “nothing will be impossible to God” and then comes that most significant phrase, “and the angel left her”.  Yes not even the greatest of the angels was worthy to be present at the moment.  It was the most intimate and sacred, one to one event of all human history. How fittingly it is said then that “The angel left her”.

The second celebration, the Bethlehem Scene, is open to all the world and to heaven itself.  There are myriads of angels in the skies above singing “glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of goodwill” and the representatives of  all peoples, the shepherds the magi; the poor the rich the jews the gentiles, are all there.  And now we too join the whole of Christian society down the centuries openly proclaiming and exulting and rejoicing in Mary’s bringing forth of the Divine Babe.

This is all most fitting, of course, but, as we join with the whole world and with the angels of heaven themselves in the joy of our public celebrations on this Christmas of the year 2012 let us remember also that most silent and intimate moment of the incarnation when only two were there: God and Mary.  And let us beg her that she may share something of  the sublimity of that moment with us her children.