Christmas Dawn Mass 2020

I was privileged to make a retreat in a Jesuit vineyard. It was just about the beginning of spring and it was cold. In the whole of Australia, that was the only place that has a chapel with a crypt underneath it. Living almost permanently under the pollution of light in our country, one never realises how bright the stars can be. I walked out one very dark night, looked up into the sky and saw a streak of bright sparkles, otherwise, known as the Milky Way. Captivating as it was, I did not linger long because my mind drifted to the crypt under the chapel on my left which gave me goose bumps.

Today’s Dawn Mass reminded me of that night. Too bad we had no Midnight Mass for that would have given us an idea of what was involved. In the material darkness of the night, we are reminded that there is a darkness more pernicious than just the absence of light. It is a darkness of the mind and of the soul, a spiritual darkness which only Christ the Light can dispel.

The Dawn Mass however shows us to whom the Light first appeared. On the very night of the Saviour birth, there were shepherds out in the cold and as dawn was breaking, a bright light appeared, and an angel announced to them the birth of the Messiah. The annunciation ended with a heavenly chorus that inspired our Gloria, a prayer recited or sung at Mass on feast days and solemnities.

Our notion of the shepherds has possibly been glamorised over the centuries. Almost all of the pastoral figurines we have in our crib sets would show one of them humbly shouldering a sheep whilst carrying a staff. Why not? After all, our image of Jesus is that of the Good Shepherd which actually proves the point of romanticisation. What is more? The Pope asked the pastors to smell of the sheep. But shepherds were the outcasts of the community—socially ill-fitting and religiously rejected. They were considered unclean for both a social setting and the Temple worship. If we need a modern copy, they were the “Banglas” or “Nepalis”[1] of their time for they took on the manual tasks of a labour undesired.

It is to this group of the unwashed masses, that the Gospel of salvation was first proclaimed. There are two ways—ad extra et ad intra—to approach this message and both reveal how extensively merciful God is in His salvific will.

Ad extra, Christmas should make us think of those whom society would deem as undeserving of salvation. Broadly speaking, we may have focused too narrowly in terms of “giving attention to”. For many of us, the Christmas spirit is to think of those whom we seldom have a second thought for. Perhaps this explains the “feel good” factor in some of the things we do. For example, once a year, as an expression of CSR—corporate social responsibility, companies will rush to distribute aid to the poor because it elevates their social standing or people who donate feel good that they have given attention to those at the margin. Many of the homes can be choosy at this time saying that they do not need your extra fruitcakes, used clothes, or hampers. Better still, they do not want KFC. Focussing on the poor is good but it is more than just economic attention. In the same way, we also take a closer look at people whom we may have neglected over the months. Our parents, our spouses, and our children. But, have we been so taken up by the material necessities of life that we have forgotten that people need more than just corporeal care and concern? Or even emotional support. All these ministrations, crucial as they are, they do not touch the heart of the Gospel message and that is redemption and salvation. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ the Saviour, not the teacher, not the prophet, not the guru and definitely not the therapist.

Thus, the question is this: “Who needs the good news of salvation brought to them?". "Who needs to know that Jesus Christ the Saviour is born?".

A question like this can be deceptive because we tend to think ad extra meaning that we gladly scan for those who need to be saved but what about ad intra. Most of us are comfortable with the idea that there are people out there to be saved but can be genuinely obtuse when it comes to ourselves. Am I in need of salvation? Do I need to be saved or only others do?

The amazing thing about us is that we seem to measure “evil” in the extreme like murder or serial killing. I have read a quip which says, “If you want to look thin, stand next to a fat person”. My apologies if it comes across as “fat-shaming” because that is not the intention. The point is, “How good are we if compared ourselves with the depraved in order to feel good about ourselves?”. Since I am not killing anyone or stealing money like Najib had done, then I must be pretty decent.

Depravity is never a reliable measure. We should glance upwards for our benchmark. God created us in His image, and this is where we all fall short, again and again. It is the perfection of God that we are supposed to live up to. That scale no one can ever measure up to on his or her own, not even Mary, the immaculately conceived Mother of Jesus. It is only with God’s grace that we do.

While the vices of sin are many, what is more deceptive is when we do not recognise that we need to be saved. One of the things which the pandemic has uncovered is this blindness. Apparently, modern pagans that we are, according to Fulton Sheen, we have all been immaculately conceived and the only default setting we have is to rely on our own devices[2] failing to realise that God alone is our Saviour.

The very appearance of the angel to the shepherds reminds us that no one is exempt from God’s salvific will. Everyone needs to be saved. As the shepherds hurried to welcome the new-born King, let us join them, recognising that we, like the rest of mankind, need salvation. God has given us His Son, Jesus Christ to be our Saviour. Glory to God in the highest.

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[1] Precisely! It comes across so wrong to use them as examples and yet, our foreign workers are the ones who bear the brunt of the dirty, dangerous and difficult work that no citizens in the “right frame of mind” would want to do.

[2] A statement like this might sound anti-science and definitely fatalistic but it is not. We ought to use our God-given talents to do what is necessary. But we should never lose sight that God alone is our Saviour.

4th Sunday of Advent Year B 2020

We lingered with John the Baptist for two consecutive Sundays. At our first encounter, the Baptiser reminded us of the need for conversion and repentance. Last week, he stood as the beacon of joy, a joy that flowed from the recognition that humanity’s salvation was near. Today, we shift our attention to Mary, the Mother of Our Lord.

 

If John the Baptist represents the last of the Old Testament prophets, then Mary will have situated us within the age of the New Testament. The covenant with David will come to fruition in the mystery of a humble peasant girl in Nazareth. In the 1^st Reading, David was ambitious to house God in a temple fitting for His divine majesty. But God could not be outdone. Instead, He gave David a house, a dynasty to last forever. The promise to remain forever with David has come true in the womb of Mary. Her “fiat” or “yes” to God has exalted her womb into the new Ark of the Covenant.

 

The focus of Mary might look like a devotional excess from one side of Catholicism. The modern discomfort with this Marian exuberance may stem from our deflated self-worth rather than from the fear of idolatry. This accusation of exaggerated affection emanates from the air of anti-heroism[1], meaning that, we want Our Lady to be like us—sad and sordid. You see this in the modern reinterpretation of the Marian motif. The most famous of whom is our songbird Madonna—who dresses up like a whore in some of her performances.

 

But the truth is that our Marian emphasis is never enough. Why? The person of Mary must be seen in the light of salvation. She stands as a symbol of our need for the Saviour. Here again, the other side of our Catholic sensibility might be offended. She is, after all, the Immaculate Conception—the woman born without Original Sin, the last person in need of salvation. How can she then symbolise our need for the Saviour?

 

I know, this is a terribly misleading statement. Precisely that it is paradoxical that in Mary, who played such a pivotal role in the life of Jesus, that the offer of salvation was given to the only person who appeared to have no need of a rescue. It is a false paradox.[2] Why? Not even she, whom William Wordsworth exalted as “our tainted nature’s solitary boast”, is exempted from the need for redemption proving to us that salvation is a serious business. We need the Saviour.

 

This need is acute even if we did not realise it. In those days of old, people were aware of God’s faithfulness as in they live more precariously—droughts, earthquakes, storms, and truly needed to depend on God to face the unknown. Today, we have our predictable and controllable modern amenities. Clap and voilà, we are lit. Practically everything we want is at the touch of our finger tips. Until now. For many are vaguely conscious of God’s presence in the sense that we have Him at a comfortable place where He is useful. Many turn to God only as a last resort because it is more reliable to depend on ourselves and our capabilities. For the intractable problems with the desirable solutions, if God answers, well and good. If not, we have not lost more than we already have.

 

This is our utilitarian blindness. We believe that our problems originate from a brokenness in the systems, be it in the economic, social or political realms. As such we can fix them. These various structures are good because they belong to our human ingenuity and intelligence. And they are all gifts from God. They help organise our lives. When we have poverty, we try our level best to solve it through our economic, political and social policies forgetting that there is “brokenness” that cannot be fixed no matter what. For example, we believe that if we recycled enough or use less resources or whatever they may be, then the earth will return to that green and lush planet that has a place for everyone. It may be true, but it is not the entire truth.

 

Our complex arrangements, good that they are, they are not our Saviours. The classical case of the communist project, with its planned economy was an attempt to recreate paradise on earth but it has instead resulted in untold misery. It is the same for people, who tired of unhappiness, escaped to another place to establish a more perfect system. They will soon find themselves entangled by the reality of sin—jealousy and greed.[3] These sins point out that human nature needs a Saviour. We cannot save ourselves. Only God can save us.

 

However, we are struggling to trust in God. We rather trust our machinations. In fact, this pandemic is somewhat a proof that we are still dependent on ourselves. Instead of also turning to God more fervently, we seemed to have settled into some sort of paralysis as we come to terms with the uncertainty of the new normal, so it seems. Placing our hope in the vaccine has lulled us into a kind of false security because unwittingly we are waiting eagerly, aided by the “saviour” of a vaccine, to return to the normalcy we know as if we had no need of conversion or better still, no necessity of salvation. Business as usual is our default expectations.

 

It is only a matter of days before Christmas. If to be saved is the natural and necessary setting for all mankind, Mary included, then Mary is truly our model. She accepted the will of God even though it carried with it risks and dangers, but she relied on the everlasting promise of God to David that He would be faithful. The significance of Mary’s fiat is the dawn of human salvation. From the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel, Mary now plays a prominent role in the salvific history of humanity. But, not only that.

 

We have a facility of separating that which should be an interior movement into a purely exterior event. What do I mean? Christmas becomes just an occasion, almost accidental (and not essential) to who we are. That way, it can become an excuse to celebrate but not really an invitation to each one of us to be “Christmas”. For the Father’s choice of Mary means each one of us is also highly favoured or blessed and chosen. Not necessarily to be the biological mother of Jesus but that we become the fertile spiritual soil for the Word to fall and germinate. As the antiphon declares “Drop down dew from above, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down the Just One; let the earth be opened and bring forth a Saviour”. The Saviour is born of a Virgin. He awaits to be born in our hearts.

 

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[1] Think Suicide Squad. Every one of our heroes is a criminal…

[2] In view of her role as the Mother of God, she had been saved already by merits of Jesus Christ. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception explains it.

[3] Think any “perfect” groupings where soon enough there will be jealousy etc…