The grace of God our Saviour hath appeared

The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Mass During the Night

The Nocturnal Journey

It is true. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Isaias 9:2). Following the ancient tradition of the Church, we prepared our encounter with the Light by means of a night vigil of psalmody and reading. The Word heard became the Word held; the Word held became the Word offered; and the Word offered becomes, in this nocturnal Sacrifice, a Light, no longer beheld from without, but blazing within. “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?” (Luke 24:32). In the sacred liturgy, as in the mystical life, there are no abrupt arrivals. The nocturnal journey is indispensable. Night’s dark mantle veils God’s mysterious work. One cannot approach the Light except by passing through the darkness.

Out of Darkness into Light

What is true of the liturgy is true of life and this, not because the liturgy imitates life but rather, because life’s wellspring is the liturgy. This is the age-old pattern of our worship: an alternating rhythm of reading, of psalmody, of prayer, culminating in the Sacrifice that is our communion with the glorious paschal Christ. In this holy night of Christ’s birth as in the brightest and holiest of all nights, the great and solemn night of his resurrection, there is a passover, a transitus, a movement out of darkness into the marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9) of the Father shining on the face of the Son (2 Corinthians 4:6).

It Takes Time to Wake Up

The passage from darkness to light is not sudden and violent; in the liturgy, as in the cosmos itself, the process cannot be foreshortened nor hastened. Night lasts as long as it lasts. The light of dawn fills the sky at precisely the right moment and not a moment sooner. Saint Augustine said to us last night in the very last Matins of Advent, “Wake up, O man—it was for you that God was made man! Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Sermon 185). The point of this text given to us after four weeks of Advent is that it takes time to wake up. Even now, the Church is an indulgent mother giving us time to wipe the sleep from our eyes, to stretch our limbs, and to adjust to the radiant splendour of the mystery. A little while ago, you heard the voice of Saint Leo, jubilant and majestic. “You have been rescued from the power of darkness, and have been transferred to the light of God” (Sermon I Nativity, 1-3).

Thou Art My Son

Our wondering eyes were not yet adjusted to the newness of the light when quietly and softly the Son himself began to sing the mystery of his life with the Father in the Holy Spirit: “The Lord said to me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten Thee’” (Psalm 2:7). The night grew brighter still with the words of the prophet Isaiah, “And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaias 9:6).

The Grace of God

Saint Paul beheld the growing radiance and cried out to Titus and to us, “For the grace of God our Saviour hath appeared to all men” (Tit 2:11). The grace of God! The Greek term is so rich as to defy a single translation. It is his beauty, his loveliness, his kindness, his free gift, his favour, his joy! The beauty, the loveliness, the kindness, the free gift, the favour, the joy of God has appeared for the salvation of all men. By the beauty of his Christ we are made beautiful; by the loveliness of his Christ we are made lovable; by the kindness of his Christ we who had grown stony are softened; by the free gift of his Christ we who were enslaved are set free; by the favour of his Christ we who were cast out have been gathered in; by the joy of his Christ we who were sons and daughters of gloom have been marked with the seal of unending gladness.

Shining on the Face of a Child

This is the mystery that makes “the night as bright as the day” (Psalm 138:12). This is the mystery by which we are “redeemed from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14). This is the mystery accomplished by “the zeal of the Lord of hosts” (Isaias 9:7) precisely for “the salvation of all men” (Tit 2:11). It is this phrase of Saint Paul’s letter to Titus that interprets for us the jubilant cry with which you began your long and solemn vigil, “Christ has been born for us: come, let us adore him.” The birth of Christ is the long-awaited appearing of the grace of God in human flesh for the salvation — that is, for the healing — of all men. The grace of God has appeared bright and radiant, shining on a face like our own, on the face of a child whose name is “Mighty God” (Isaias 9:6). Here the awesome has become homely, the terrible familiar, the immense touchingly small.

The Light Common to Us All

The night common to us all gives way to the Light common to us all. Saint Leo told us that no one is excluded, no one kept at a distance, no one refused. Sinners mingle with saints, and Gentiles with Jews. The poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind (Luke 14:13) sing a new canticle (Psalm 95:1) because Him to whom they could not go has humbled himself to come to them.

In the Brightness of the Glory of the Lord

To us, to each of us and to us all, as to the shepherds keeping watch in the field by night (Luke 2:8) the Lord has sent his angels—David in his psalms, Isaias in his prophecies, Paul in his teaching, and Luke in his gospel. The glory of the Lord shines around us, even as it shone around them (Luke 2:9). We are enveloped, not in the dim shroud of the night, but in the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And over our heads a multitude of angels dance and thrill and soar, praising God for the appearance of his grace in the midst of men.

Let us Offer Thanksgiving

This is the mystery that sends us now to the altar of our God-given Sacrifice. This is the mystery that compels us to lift up our hearts, to set them in heights once reserved to angel hosts. Who can withhold thanks in this most blessed night? Saint Leo has already summoned us to Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “My beloved, let us offer thanksgiving to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit” (Sermon I Nativity, 1-3). The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is glory to God in the highest; the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is peace on earth. Behold! Glory has been “wrapped in swaddling clothes” and peace has been “laid in a manger” (Luke   2:12). Even more, glory has taken on the taste of bread, and peace is in the sharing of the chalice for “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isaias 9:7), even this. Amen.