Candlelight Mass

We gather tonight as a campus community to pray, to sing, to and to give glory to God for the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Now, granted, we are anticipating this a little bit, as it is only Tuesday of the 2^nd Week of Advent and Christmas is still almost two weeks away.  But, as we won’t have the opportunity to be together then, we gather tonight in what has been a very longstanding tradition here at St. Ambrose.  Also, today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commemorating the appearance of our Blessed Mother to a poor, indigenous man by the name of Juan Diego on Tepeyac hill near Mexico City in 1531.  And so we ask for the prayers Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, tonight as well.

          While we come together to sing Christmas carols in this somewhat anticipated celebration, it may be easy to get caught up in the sentimentality of it all.  It may be easy to think that Christmas is about a cute story of the birth of a child.  And to be sure, there is an aspect of this we cannot ignore.  However, if we think a little bit more about the circumstances of the birth of this child, we find it is not all angels and shepherds and a cooing baby.

          First, there is the fact that this young woman, who was betrothed to Joseph, was unexpectedly found with child.  Now, we know the circumstances of this child’s conception from the Gospel passage we just heard, that through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit He was miraculously conceived in the womb of Mary, who had no relations with a man.  But nobody apart from Mary and Joseph would have known this.  And so, our Lord is born into scandal.

          They go to Bethlehem to register for the census, as this was the ancestral home of Joseph.  But finding no room at the inn, they are forced to lodge in a stable with the animals.  To look on such a scene looks quaint at first, but have you ever been on a farm?  It stinks. It’s dirty.  And He is placed in a manger, a feeding trough for animals, as his first crib.  And so, our Lord is born into poverty.

          Then, shortly after these events, because of the wrath of Herod, this young family had to flee as refugees into Egypt to avoid the slaughter that would befall so many young innocents, all because Herod feared that this child of which the prophets spoke would usurp his earthly kingdom.  And so, our Lord is born into violence.

          And why did our Lord do this?  Why was He born at all, let alone in such dire circumstances?  He did this precisely to undo all this; to undo scandal, poverty and violence.  Only He was capable of this, because He was God first, the “eternal Word” who was with God and who was God, and who became flesh.  Yes, He became flesh. 

What Christmas is really about, the “real meaning of Christmas” is not just good cheer, happy songs, snowflakes, hot cocoa, tinsel and warm-fuzzing feelings and whatever else we might want to throw into that “collage” of what we understand (at least culturally) to be “Christmas.”  No, the real meaning of Christ is about the fact that God became man; that the Divine became human; that God came to dwell with us, Emmanuel.  This marriage of heaven and earth in the person of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, touched off a kind of cosmic reversal.  And we are all swept up in this cosmic reversal that we call “redemption.” This reversal, this redemption, means an end to death and destruction and the beginning of new life, eternal life with God – all because this little child would eventually grow up, and teach and preach and perform great miracles, and begin to give us a glimpse of what God has always desired for us.  This same little child would eventually lay down His life for us, and take it up again on the third day.   This is what is offered to us in the gift of redemption, but like any gift it has to accepted and unwrapped to be enjoyed.

Now, please don’t understand me.  I don’t mean to be the “Grinch” who robs you of all of your Christmas cheer, by revealing the real-world grittiness or the hard theological realities of the Christmas story.  There is a certainly a well-deserved place for some of that warm, Christmas sentiment that we all enjoy so much.  But let’s not forget that Christmas is about something more, much more, in fact, than all of that.  Also, let’s remember that for many at this time of year, so much of that Christmas sentiment is hollow, perhaps because of the loss of someone they loved dearly or because like our Lord Himself they too were born into scandal, poverty and violence.  Of course, we are all too aware in recent days of the ache of loss here in our own community, with the death of two students in as many weeks, Ethan Flaherty and Kayla Decker.  And so, for their sakes, let’s not settle for a saccharin or “glitzy,” but ultimately meaningless version of Christmas, but instead recall that what we really celebrate is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who weds heaven and earth and brings life out of death.  And that is something about which we can be truly joyful.

On behalf of all of the faculty and staff, and especially my fellow campus ministers, please know of our prayers for you and your families.  Please know of our support as you continue in this finals week.  And may you have a blessed rest of Advent and, in a very short while, a truly Merry Christmas!