Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk

The Nativity of the Lord (Vigil Mass), Year A – Dec 24, 2016

Readings: Is 62:1-5; Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:4-5.16-17.29 (2a); Acts 13:16-17.22-25; Gospel - Matthew 1:1-25.

Theme: Christmas Eve: Joining the Shepherds in the First Vigil!

 

Beloved in Christ, today is Christmas-eve. Here in Nigeria, we are quite familiar with the razzmatazz that is often associated with the day or period of time immediately before an event or occasion like the bachelor’s eve or what is popularly called, before the wedding – Usually, the friends of the groom or groomsmen raise money and throw some kind of a send off party for their crony who is about to graduate from bachelorhood to both familyhood and fatherhood.

Those who have attended these parties claim that such parties are avenues for married guys to give good advice to the groom to be. Aside from the plenty food and drink available, such events are known to be wild and funky. What is clear in this kind of celebration is the spirit of expectation or joyous waiting by the bridegroom for his beloved bride.

In like manner, the Church awaits with joyful expectation the bachelor’s eve of Christ her bridegroom. Little wonder, having being born, he was more than willing to lay down his life for his bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:25). Of him Saint John writes: “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete” (John 3:29). So too, the Church awaits the Saviour’s birth, her bridegroom whom John the Baptist heralded as Saint Luke rightly points out in the second reading (Acts 13:16-17.22-25).

By his birth, Christ initiated a covenantal relationship with us. This covenant comes to the fore at our baptism when we are anointed with Holy Chrism just as Christ was anointed Priest, King and Prophet by God making us coheirs of his kingdom of justice, love, and peace which Christmas signifies. Christmas, therefore, is the wedding of Christ and his Church, the wedding of Christ and the Christian and the wedding of heaven and of earth.

This Christmas’ eve is the moment we have all waited for – for us, it is the moment of grace and blessings, the moment of love and mercy and the moment of joyous waiting and expectation. Just as Mary and Joseph waited in expectation for Christ’s birth, the Church awaits with the joy that glorious moment when the saviour is born – this is why we are keeping vigil for that night that made the difference in our lives; that night that remains the focal point of our salvation history.

What is more, tonight, the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading (Is 62:1-5) equates our joy to that of a bridegroom who rejoices in his bride. By implication, Christians everywhere are called to share the joy of Christmas with everyone especially those at the margins of society – the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the hospitalised, the imprisoned, the lonely, the aged and the unloved. Our Christmas will only make meaning when we share what we have, food and drink, clothes and shoes, with those who cannot pay us back. Remember Christ came to save us not by any merit on our part (Titus 3:5).

Like the chant of the Responsorial Psalm, we are called to sing the goodness of the Lord forever (Psalm 89:1). While we do that, we are reminded that this Holy Season is an opportunity to be proud of our individual families and the family of God which is the Church. The Church did not choose the genealogy of Jesus as our gospel (Matthew 1:1-25) relates for fancy. No doubt, each member of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was proud of that family.

This means that it is not just enough to celebrate the vigil of Christ, the bridegroom of the Church and chant his praises without appreciating the family that we come from. Sadly, many young people today are too ashamed of their parents or siblings because they are either too poor or primitive. Perhaps we often forget that Jesus’ family borrowed a manger to give birth to him not the most expensive hospital; they may not have had napkin, pampers or new clothing for the baby yet it is on record that this family, which I refer to as the First Family is the happiest family the world has ever had.

One clear message for this vigil is, happiness does not come with attachment to material belongings. Rather, it is an inner disposition to containment and being okay with which family one comes from and what one has. We must accept where we come from and learn to place human beings ahead of wealth and power. The moment we put human interest first on our agenda as Mary and Joseph did by co-operating with the will of God in their lives to give birth to the saviour of the world and also nurse him, ours will be a life to remember.

Tonight, we join the shepherds in keeping vigil as we await the star of Bethlehem. Indeed, the groins of labour are replaced by the sight of the beautiful baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. The cry of the baby King is replaced by the Gloria of the heavenly throng. As Catholics, we are proud to once again sing the Gloria we have been starved of for four weeks. Our joy is that we won’t have to sing the Gloria only today and tomorrow but every time we celebrate the Lord’s mysteries at Holy Mass.  Merry Christmas!!