{"id":2538,"date":"2006-12-24T15:06:50","date_gmt":"2006-12-24T15:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2006\/12\/a-night-as-bright-as-the-day\/"},"modified":"2006-12-24T15:06:50","modified_gmt":"2006-12-24T15:06:50","slug":"a-night-as-bright-as-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2006\/12\/a-night-as-bright-as-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A Night As Bright As the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nativity-1.jpg\"<\/a>
\nThe Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
\nMass During the Night<\/strong>
\nIsaiah 9:2-4, 6-7
\nPsalm 95: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
\nTitus 2: 11-14
\nLuke 2:10-11
\n“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
\nthose who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
\non them has light shined” (Is 9:2).
\nFollowing the ancient tradition of the Church
\nyou prepared your encounter with the Light
\nby means of a night vigil of psalmody and reading.
\nThe Word heard became the Word held;
\nthe Word held became the Word offered;
\nand the Word offered becomes, in this nocturnal Eucharist,
\na Light, no longer beheld from without, but blazing within.
\n“Did not our hearts burn within us
\nwhile he talked to us on the road?” (Lk 24:32).<\/p>\n


\nIn the sacred liturgy, as in the mystical life,
\nthere are no abrupt arrivals.
\nThe nocturnal journey is indispensable.
\nNight’s dark mantle veils God’s mysterious work.
\nOne cannot approach the Light
\nexcept by passing through the darkness.
\nIn this holy night of Christ’s birth,
\nas in the brightest and holiest of all nights,
\nthe great and solemn night of his resurrection,
\nthere is a passover, a transitus,
\na movement out of darkness
\ninto the marvelous light (1 P 2:9)of the Father
\nshining on the face of the Son (2 Cor 4:6).
\nThe passage from darkness to light is not sudden and violent;
\nin the liturgy, as in the cosmos itself,
\nthe process cannot be foreshortened nor hastened.
\nNight lasts as long as it lasts.
\nThe light of dawn fills the sky at precisely the right moment
\nand not a moment sooner.
\nIt takes time to wake up.
\nEven now, the Church is an indulgent mother
\ngiving us time to wipe the sleep from our eyes,
\nto stretch our limbs,
\nand to adjust to the radiant splendour of the mystery.
\nA little while ago, you heard the voice of Saint Leo,
\njubilant and majestic.
\n“You have been rescued from the power of darkness,
\nand have been transferred
\nto the light of God” (Sermon I Nativity, 1-3).
\nOur wondering eyes were not yet adjusted\\
\nto the newness of the light
\nwhen quietly and softly
\nthe Son himself began to sing
\nthe mystery of his life with the Father in the Holy Spirit:
\n“The Lord said to me, \u2018You are my Son,
\ntoday I have begotten you’” (Ps 2:7).
\nThe night grew brighter still with the words of the prophet Isaiah,
\n“And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
\nEverlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6).
\nSaint Paul beheld the growing radiance
\nand cried out to Titus and to us,
\n“The grace of God has appeared
\nfor the salvation of all men” (Tit 2:11).
\nThe grace of God!
\nThe Greek word is so rich as to defy a single translation.
\nIt is His beauty, His loveliness, His kindness,
\nHis free gift, His favour, His joy!
\nThe beauty, the loveliness, the kindness,
\nthe free gift, the favour, the joy of God
\nhave appeared for the salvation of all men.
\nBy the beauty of the Infant Christ we are made beautiful;
\nby the loveliness of the Infant Christ we are made lovable;
\nby the purity of the Infant Christ we are made pure;
\nby the kindness of the Infant Christ
\nwe who had grown stony\u2013hearted are softened;
\nby the free gift of the Infant Christ we who were enslaved are set free;
\nby the outstretched arms of the Infant Christ
\nwe who were cast out have been gathered in;
\nby the laughter of the Infant Christ we who were sons and daughters of gloom
\nhave been merrily marked with the seal of unending gladness.
\nThis is the mystery that makes “the night as bright as the day” (Ps 138:12).
\nThis is the mystery by which we are “redeemed from all iniquity” (Tit 2:14).
\nThis is the mystery accomplished by “the zeal of the Lord of hosts” (Is 9:7) precisely for “the salvation of all men” (Tit 2:11).
\nThe birth of Gesù Bambino is the long-awaited appearing of the grace of God in human flesh for the healing of all men,
\nand especially of grown\u2013ups become serious and sophisticated,
\nor harried and hard,
\nor miserable and mirthless.
\nLet Gesù Bambino smile at you tonight.
\nHis divine smile works wonders in the soul.
\nThe grace of God appears bright and radiant,
\nshining on a face like our own,
\non the face of a Baby whose name is “Mighty God” (Is 9:6).
\nHere the awesome has become homely,
\nthe terrible familiar,
\nthe immense touchingly small.
\nThe night common to us all
\ngives way to the Light common to us all.
\nSaint Leo told us that no one is excluded,
\nno one kept at a distance, no one refused.
\nSinners mingle with saints, and Gentiles with Jews.
\nThe poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind (Lk 14:13)
\nsing a new song (Ps 95:1)
\nbecause Him to whom they could not go
\nhas humbled Himself to come to them.
\nTo us, to each of us and to us all,
\nas to the shepherds keeping watch in the field by night (Lk 2:8)
\nthe Lord has sent his angels:
\nDavid in his psalms,
\nIsaiah in his prophecies,
\nPaul in his teaching,
\nand Luke in his gospel.
\nThe glory of the Lord shines around us,
\neven as it shone around them (Lk 2:9).
\nWe are enveloped, not in the dim shroud of the night,
\nbut in the brightness of the King of Heaven
\ncome down from the stars.
\nAnd over our heads a multitude of angels dance and thrill and soar,
\npraising God for the appearance of this Child in the midst of men.
\nThis is the mystery that sends us now
\nto the altar of our God-given sacrifice.
\nThis is the mystery that compels us to lift up our hearts,
\nto set them in heights once reserved to angel hosts.
\nWho can withhold thanks in this most blessed night?
\nSaint Leo has already summoned us to Eucharist:
\n“My beloved, let us offer thanksgiving to God the Father,
\nthrough his Son, in the Holy Spirit” (Sermon I Nativity, 1-3).
\nThe Eucharist is glory to God in the highest;
\nthe Eucharist is peace on earth.
\nBehold! Glory has been “wrapped in swaddling clothes”
\nand peace has been “laid in a manger” (Lk 2:12).
\nEven more, Glory has taken on the taste of bread,
\nand peace is in the holy chalice
\nfor “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Is 9:7),
\neven this. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Mass During the Night Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7 Psalm 95: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13 Titus 2: 11-14 Luke 2:10-11 “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” (Is 9:2). Following the ancient <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-EW","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}