We gather tonight for the traditional Midnight Mass to celebrate the birth of the Lord. The Midnight Christmas Mass traces its tradition to the city of Jerusalem in the Early Church as the the faithful would welcome the birth of the Christ child in the late night hours. We follow in the footsteps of that tradition tonight. We often have a lot of friends and visitors joining us at St Jude for Mass tonight. We want to welcome all of you here tonight with a very warm welcome. At our Midnight Mass tonight, and at Midnight Masses all over the world, we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah proclaimed: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” This prophecy of Isaiah never ceases to touch us, especially when we hear it proclaimed in the liturgy of Christmas night. But this message is just not sentimental. It touches our lives became it names a deep reality of our lives, that as we journey in faith, all around us and within us, is darkness and light. In this night, as the spirit of darkness enfolds in our world, the birth of Christ takes place. Each year, as we celebrate his birth, we are amazed and touched by the light of Christ that enters our world. His light helps us reflect on the mystery of faith, as we walk and we see and we search.
The symbolism of the Midnight Mass tonight intersects with the reality of our world at this time of the year. Ever since the summer solstice in the middle of June, we have been losing a little bit of light each day. The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, occurred last Friday, with the sun rising later in the morning and setting earlier in the evening. Some of us walk out the door in the morning into darkness and then return home in darkness. Our days are framed by darkness.
In the darkness of this time of the year, into our lives of faith is born our Savior, the child Jesus born in the manger in Bethlehem. God has shattered the darkness of night with the light of His Son, bringing the light of Christ into our lives. There are times in our lives when the darkness can overwhelm us. I remember one Christmas that I spent in Ecuador in small village of San Francisco de Onzole in the middle of the rainforest jungle. The village was right on the banks of a huge river. It had no electricity at all. On Christmas eve, the villagers spent the whole night in the church, signing hymns to the sounds of the maracas and drums. I remember sitting in the church in the late night hours in the hot and humid tropical climate on Christmas eve, with the only light present coming from a few candles. The night felt so immense and so dark. Yet, I felt the light of Christ in the joy of the people and in the light coming from those few candles.
The Mexican people have a custom that they celebrate throughout the last couple of weeks leading up to Christmas called the Posadas. We celebrated a Posada here at St Jude a couple of weeks ago. It is a dramatization of the search for lodging for Mary and Joseph right before Jesus’ birth, the story of the Holy Family that we hear tonight in our Gospel from Luke. A couple of youth dress as Mary and Joseph to symbolize their plight. As they knock on the doors of the homes, they ask: “In the name of Heaven, we ask you for lodging, because Mary cannot walk any longer, as she is about to bear a child.” They are given the answer by those who are inside: “This is no inn, keep on going. We won't open the door – we don’t know who you are.” Finally, they reach a house where they receive this answer: “Enter, Holy Pilgrims, accept this dwelling place; you will dwell not in this humble house, but in our humble hearts.”
As we hear in the Gospel tonight, it is not the wealthy or influential who first recognize Jesus’ birth and who believe in its glory, but rather the poor and outcasts of society. Shepherds were forsaken in their community not only because of their poverty, but because their contact with blood of their sheep made them unclean under Jewish law. The birth of Jesus within human history is so very important, but it's equally important that Jesus be born in our hearts and in our faith. There must take place in us something corresponding to what happened in Bethlehem; a birth must take place in us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior tonight, may he truly be born into our hearts.
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