Gospel Reflection 2020/2021

Imagine a Christmas without the Christmas shopping and the Christmas gifts…

Imagine a Christmas without the feasting and partying – no luxurious eating and binge drinking, no grand-scale gathering of family and friends, no roast turkeys or Yule log cakes…

Imagine a Christmas without ‘deck(ing) the halls’ – a Christmas without the Christmas trees, the Advent wreath, the Nativity scene, the glittering lights and the flickering candles…

Imagine a Christmas under siege – no house-to-house Caroling and no public Christmas Masses…

What is Christmas when it is stripped bare?

The first Christmas was nothing spectacular by human standards. There was no grand celebration, no feasting or partying, no pretty decoration to welcome the Baby, no warm and cozy gathering of family and friends...

The reality was harsh: Mary, a teenage girl, was pregnant out of wedlock. Joseph, her fiancé, wanting to divorce her privately. The Holy Family were ‘migrants’, having to travel miles to Bethlehem for the census. And there was no room in the inn for the exhausted Family… [Lk 2: 1-14]

The Word (the Son of God) was made flesh and He lived among us [Jn 1: 14]. He was born in the animal shed, laid in a manger, placed alongside with the animals – in such undignified state of poverty and deplorable hygiene condition. He came unto his own, but his own received him not [Jn 1: 11]. The first Christmas was never warm, cozy, romantic and luxurious as we are having it now.

What do we need for Christmas?

We do not need more Christmas shopping or more Christmas gifts because ‘he who has God lacks nothing’ [St Teresa of Avila] and Jesus is the greatest Christmas gift we can ever have.

We do not need feasting and partying because the Bread of Heaven has come down to feed us with His precious Body and His precious Blood.

We do not need to ‘deck the halls’ with Christmas ornaments. Instead, we need to deck our hearts with prayers and acts of charity.

We do not need the glittering lights or the flickering candles because upon us, Jesus Christ, the great Light has shone [cf. Is 9: 2].

Even if Christmas is under siege and we are deprived of Christmas Carols and public Masses, we are still in spiritual communion with the Body of Christ (the Church), by the virtue of our Baptism, through prayers and live-streamed Masses.

All we need for Christmas (Christ’s Mass) are CHRIST and MASS:

Where Mass is celebrated, Christ is present.

Where Christ is present, there is Christmas.

Pope Francis reminds us that ‘no pandemic can turn off the light of Christmas’. The darkest hour is nearest to dawn, and the light of hope shines brightest in darkness. Let the words of Sr Patricia Murray encourage us during this dark hour:

If your path is menaced by shadow, may the Lord circle you, keep light within, and darkness out.

If your path is targeted by conflict, may the Lord, circle you, keep Love near, and keep hatred afar.

If your path is threatened by worry, may the Lord, circle you, keep peace within, and fear without.

We have waited long for You, O Lord. Deep has been the darkness. We long for You to come, right here among us where we are now.

We will not fear the shadows that surround us because You are coming among us.

We await the sound of a cry in the night, the joy that follows pain, the coming of Hope into our world.

Let our fervent prayer be:

“God of hosts, bring us back; let Your face shine on us and we shall be saved.”