Christmas Mass of the Day 2025

There was a bishop who in striking up a conversation would like to know who the parents are of the person he is talking to. Both Matthew and Luke are no different. In fact, they go even further than just parents because they have presented us with the genealogy of Jesus. However, the Gospel today taken from John does the same tracing back but it goes even further than Mark and Matthew. Instead of outlining the ancestry of Jesus back to Adam and Eve, John traced it even further to God Himself.

There is a profundity in John’s thought as well as a loftiness in his theology because he is able to peer into and contemplate the divinity of Jesus Christ. Using Greek terminology, Jesus is equated with the Logos, the Word or the Reason through Whom, God created the universe. The Logos is not merely a principle but is in fact equivalent to God.

“The Word was with God. The Word was God”.

As such the Mass of the Day is called the King’s Mass. Through John’s Gospel, we are invited to come, more than the Shepherds’ marvelling at the birth of the Child, and to worship the King of Kings. Through the mystery of the Incarnation, our King lives with us and He has come to lift us up to Himself. As the Collects suggests, “O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature and still more wonderfully restored it, grant, we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity”.

This King is the only king for whom time ticks. All time is reckoned by Him. Before His coming, time is measured as “Before Christ” but after His coming, time has been sanctified. The scale of time, BC and AD are demarcated by His birth. Thus, after Christ’s birth, time is now described as “In the Year of the Lord”, that is “Anno Domini”. The present system of describing time as BCE and CE, “Before Common Era” and “Common Era”, despite an attempt at distancing time from Christ, for fear of religious hegemony, namely Christian dominance, is still hegemonic because the scale or canon is still determined by the academics of the western hemisphere. If these superior intellectuals, so called, in their desires to be inclusive, they could have adopted an Islamic, Chinese or an Aztec calendar.

The fact remains, the convention for universal timeline has been settled upon the birth of a Child who is the King of the created universe. This Child will rule the world. And yet Christianity is not as widespread as it should be. There are about 8.4 billion inhabitants in this world but only 31% of that total is Christian. One can look at this from the perspective a half-empty glass and interpret that as the failure of Christianity or more specifically, the failure of Christians to evangelise.

But what about another perspective? Not so much the half-full glass so that we can pat ourselves on the back. Rather it is truth-telling. The Church in general has been at the forefront of furthering human flourishing. In the arena of agriculture, the science of crop rotation and irrigation has increased yield to feed growing populations. In education, the schools that provided learning led to the formation of the universities. In legal matters, the Church helped enact laws that promoted human rights and due process in defence of human dignity. Through her charities, the Church has founded hospitals and provided health care. In the area of science, the Church has that paved the way for discoveries across many facets of life. The problem is that we are often silenced by the one famous case of Galileo to prove that the Church is anti-science or anti-reason. But not many people hear about the Jesuit Science which because of Jesuit presence and involvement in establishing remote stations for the collection of seismic activity, seismology came to be known as the Jesuit science

The Church has been at the forefront of civilising the world. While in terms of evangelisation, she may not have done a great job, the truth remains that she has contributed to making the world a better place. The world as we know it today has been Christify by the Child born two thousand years ago. His birth signalled His intent on bringing all creation under His rule. His death and resurrection sealed the victory over sin and death.

However, the King has yet to fully reclaim creation in its entirety. The Church is called Ecclesia Militans for this reason. Christ has won the war over Satan’s rule but the battle continues in our courts, in our malls, in our academic halls and most of all in our hearts. Christians throughout the world must fight against their selfishness and conquer over their unruly desires in order to follow Christ.

There are many factors why Christianity or Catholicism has not taken roots in some parts of the world. Suffice to say that the Church’s failure at furthering Christ’s Kingdom stems from the sins of her children—me and you. We need to stand out more than others. As someone used to say, “We might be the only bible that unbelievers get to read” and rightly so, Pope Saint Leo the Great reminded us of our status as sons and daughters of God: “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.”

So, there is a lot of love to give. There is a lot of forgiveness to embrace. There is a lot of good to do. When we are able to love in the manner Jesus did, forgive the way Jesus modelled for us, be and do good Jesus went about, then the world might just recognise the Lord. Can we love better? Can we forgive more magnanimously? Can we be good? We can with the help of God and in so doing, we can become the fire that burns brightly in a darkness that calls out for the Light of Christ. There is a world waiting to recognise her King. It helps if we recognise Him first. So, let us come let us adore Him, Christ the King, Christ the Saviour, Christ the Lord.

Christmas Mass of the Day Year B 25th Dec 2023

We have arrived at the “final” Mass for the Solemnity of Christmas. The Vigil last evening was the first of four Masses. Each Mass has been allocated its own set of readings to assist us in contemplating Christ’s birth. The Vigil taken from Matthew’s Gospel focused on the genealogy of Christ. The Midnight Mass spoke of Christ’s humble birth through Luke’s Gospel. The Mass at Dawn continues with the narrative surrounding the birth of Christ that ended with the Shepherd’s visit. The Mass of the Day with its Gospel from John makes the connexion creation and God’s salvific action through the Incarnation. At the same time it also highlights the true cost of discipleship.

The evangelist John does not have the Infancy Narratives that are found in both Matthew and Luke. The language is poetic but more than that, it is spiritually symbolic because it copies the Book of Genesis by using the same words, “In the beginning…”. The Evangelist draws us into the drama of creation by bringing us back even before the advent of time to illustrate that the Logos, already present when time and space were created, is now the Word made flesh.

The Evangelist quickly introduces the Baptist whose sole purpose was simply to be the precursor to the Light. Before the Word was made flesh, the humanity only knew the Laws. As the 2nd Reading reminds us, if in the past God spoke to us through the Prophets, He now speaks to us through His Son.

There is not a hint of sentimentality in the 4th Gospel but it is still most powerful because it goes into the very purpose of Christ’ birth at Christmas. Jesus is how the Father would speak to us and to those who accept Him, He gives power to become His children. In Christ, we have a secure path to the Father because no one has seen the Father except the Word made visible.

Caught up in the celebration, we might have difficulties appreciating that God has spoken to us through His Son. Thus, if we remove all the partying and the Christmas paraphernalia prior to 25th Dec, we may be able to appreciate better what Christmas stands for. Why? For even 24th Dec remains a part of Advent, the period that prepares for Christ’s birth and properly the season of Christmas begins only on 25th itself. How many of us can wait until 25th itself to begin our Christmas celebration? Practically nobody and in fact, by today, Christmas proper, many of us would have had enough—drinks, food and parties. Some malls are already dismantling their Christmas décor in favour of Chinese New Year trinkets.

What is most jolting are some of the days organised after Christmas. Tomorrow is the Mass of St Stephen. In every sense of the word, he is called Proto-Martyr. It is true that he was stoned to death post-Easter but right after Christmas the Church commemorates St Stephen, sending a loud and clear message on the link between Christmas and discipleship. To become children of the Father and brothers and sisters to Christ, the cost of discipleship is real. In fact, just three days after Christmas and two days after St Stephen’s, we encounter the “comites Christi”, (companions of Christ) the Holy Innocents whose very short lives gave unique witness to Christ.

Fun and frolic belong with Christmas. We ought to celebrate Christ’s birth because the Bridegroom is with us. But Jesus Himself told the Disciples, the days of fasting will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away. If we play hard, then we should remember to pray hard, that is, by keeping an eye on Christ for Who He is and what He represents. He is the Light that shines in darkness. And we must never forget how pervasive the darkness of sin can be. Even then, we should be prepared to follow the footsteps of John the Baptist in bearing His light and bringing His love to others through our witnessing meaning that sometimes we may even have to pay with our very own lives. But losing our lives is not a loss. Instead, martyrdom is a gain as St Irenaeus used to say, “God did not tell us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole”. The real value of Christmas is counting the cost of the Cross, the true price of discipleship. Enjoy life because it is a gift to us but always keep close to Christ and His Cross.