Christmas Midnight Mass (25 Dec)
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
The Church celebrates three Masses to mark the great feast of the Nativity of the Saviour. The first is the Mass of Midnight, which will be followed by the Mass of the Dawn and the Mass of the Day. There are consequently three sets of propers, which enable us to reflect on the significance of the coming of the Word made flesh.
For this first Mass of Midnight we hear from St. Luke’s Gospel of the events that led to the birth of the Saviour at Bethlehem. There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the empire should be enrolled. This was the first enrolling made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. People therefore went to be enrolled to their ancestral city. Joseph travelled with his newly espoused Mary from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, because he was of the house and lineage of David. She was with child “and it came to pass that, when they were there, her days were accomplished that they should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” At that time in the nearby countryside there were also shepherds abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. The angel said to them, “Fear not, I bring you tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people: for this day is born to you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you: you shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.” The shepherds saw a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.”
It is not certain which census is being referred to. The Greek could either mean the first enrolling made by Cyrinus, governor of Syria, or the enrolling before Cyrinus became governor. The latter interpretation would fit better with Jesus’ birth being in the time of King Herod, as St. Matthew’s Gospel asserts. The important point is that the coming of the Saviour into the world takes place in the context of Roman imperial rule. For many the age of Augustus seemed like a golden age. A new dawn seemed to be breaking after the political turbulence in the recent history of Rome. It had now ceased to be a republic and had an emperor, who seemed to be the strong leader that was needed to stabilise the situation. Augustus had come to be viewed as a divine deliverer. A Roman poet (Horace) referred to him as presens divus, a “present deity”. He had brought unity to a distracted world, especially in the eastern part of the empire. He was seen as the saviour, the “restorer of the world” (restitutor orbis). He could guarantee protection from outward attacks, as well as internal security, providing the masses with “bread and circuses”.
However, one people had been brought under Roman rule who were less enthusiastic about such claims. They were the Jewish people, whose nation had recently been incorporated into the empire, albeit under the client king Herod. They fully shared in the hope for a good time coming, but for them it took a very different form than it did for the imperial propagandists. In the past God had acted to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt. After they had conquered the land and established an independent kingdom for many centuries it had finally fallen to the Babylonians. Some of the people had returned from exile to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple. They had renewed their covenant with God under Ezra and Nehemiah. There had even been a further period of independent rule under the Maccabees, but it had itself now been conquered by Rome. The people therefore hoped for a new golden age. Instead of a divine emperor like Augustus they looked for a messianic leader of the house of David who would re-establish an independent kingdom of Israel by defeating the pagans and restoring the temple. For some this meant active rebellion against the empire, for others a patient waiting on God, praying for him to establish his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Either way, the imperial cult of Augustus stood in direct opposition to faith in the coming Kingdom of God.
St. Luke’s Gospel tells us how this hope began to be fulfilled in paradoxical form. The coming Christ, the anointed deliverer of Israel, was indeed of the house of David and was born in Bethlehem. But his birth took place in an obscure province of the empire rather than in the palace of the mighty. He would not be a strong man like Augustus, who represented the apotheiosis of human power, but the true Saviour and Prince of Peace. His mother had proclaimed in the Magnificat that God had put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble and meek. He had filled the hungry with good things and the rich he had sent empty away. This might seem like a blueprint for another warrior and conqueror like King David, but he would instead be without form and comeliness, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He taught a way of non-violence, of overcoming evil with good, that subverted the claims not only of the imperial cult, but also the popular messianic hope for a military ruler. He would turn the other cheek and go the second mile, not only in his life and ministry, but also in his death, when he no longer taught, but acted and suffered. In so doing he took evil upon himself and somehow subsumed it into good. In his life, death and resurrection he would indeed establish his kingdom, but it would be based not on violence and brute force, but on self sacrificial love, the divine charity that vaunteth not itself, that rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the true, that beareth all things, believeth all things and endureth all things. He, not the Roman emperor, would be the true Saviour and Prince of Peace.
As St. Paul put it when writing to Titus, “the grace of God our Saviour hath appeared to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and wordly desires, we should live soberly and justly and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works.”
Let us make our own the words of the great collect for this Mass:
O God, who hast made this most holy night to shine with the brightness of true light, grant, we beseech thee, that as we have known the mystery of his light on earth, may attain the enjoyment of his happiness in heaven.
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