The Incarnation

1991 (Year C), 24 December / Midnight Mass

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

Heaven sang and earth rejoiced. ‘Glory to God in highest, and Peace to his people on earth’ and the baby lay in a manger, wrapped in swaddling. At that point, as the baby was born, heaven and earth become one in the praise and in glory of the Creator. Emanuel, God with us. Heaven and earth in unity. A unity, which no created thing could ever have achieved, was completed in an instant. Heaven sang and earth rejoiced. It was the only thing that could happen.

Yet the whole event was marked by the total lack of preparation. The kind of chaos we’ve come to associate with the vast movement of people happening in so many parts of the world. A forced journey with a pregnant woman, inappropriate transport and presumably only vague notions as to how it would all end. Very different I guess from the preparations we’ve made for the next few days. Food and presents will all have been planned for and bought. Visits arranged, families catered for, friends looked after.

An old poem describes these kinds of preparations well:

Yet if His Majesty, our sovereign Lord,
Should of his own accord
Friendly himself invite,
And say ‘I’ll be your guest to-morrow night’
How should we stir ourselves, call and command
All hands to work! ‘Let no man idle stand’. [It’s old – it can be sexist!]

The poem tells us;

…’tis a duteous thing
To show honour to an earthly King

I’m sure you’re already way ahead of me, because it ends by contrasting these impressive preparations to those made for the coming of the King of Heaven.

Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
We entertain him always as a stranger,
And, as at first, still lodge him in a manger

It’s an easy point to make, and important. Yet what we are to do in our preparation is even more vital. And even at this stage it’s not too late. Our preparation is to be of the heart, and then the heart must inform all our actions. Fasting has long been a symbol of preparation for all religious festivals, ‘Yet’, the Lord says, ‘on the day of your fasting you do as you please … Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high … Is not this kind of fasting I have chosen. To loose the chains of injustice and untie the yoke, to set the oppressed free. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood. Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say; Here I am.’

And so, on this most Holiest of nights we celebrate God saying to creation ‘Here I am’. And once more darkness is dispersed; once more we glory in the light. So much light that those who sat in the darkness of ignorance can look upon the light of knowledge. The things of the old order have passed away and behold, in the twinkling of an eye, all things are made new. He who has no mother in Heaven is now born without a father on earth. The laws of nature are overthrown, for the upper world must be filled with citizens. He who is without flesh becomes incarnate; the Word puts on a body; the Invisible is seen; he whom no hand can touch is handled; the Timeless has a beginning; the Son of God becomes Son of Man – Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever.

So,

‘What shall we offer thee O Christ,
Who for our sakes hast appeared on earth as man?
Every creature made by thee offers the thanks.
The angels offer thee a hymn;
The heavens, a star;
The Magi, gifts;
The shepherds, their wonder;
The earth, a cave;
The wilderness, a manger;
And we offer thee a Virgin Mother.
God before all ages have mercy upon us.’

AMEN