Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 24, 2019
Zechariah, John’s father, was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
“He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
“Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.
“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Late December in the northern part of our country can be a rather dark and dreary time of year, despite the glow of Christmas lights across the landscape. Likewise, there is another type of darkness that envelops us during these days. We are facing a dark time of unprecedented division in our country. As the Church, we are only just beginning to confront our own shadows of scandal. And we seem to perpetually wrestle with those sins in our personal lives that so often cloud our minds and hearts.
Amidst this literal and metaphorical darkness, we hear the words of Zechariah’s prophecy ring out in today’s gospel: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
When it seems like the darkness has overwhelmed us, we need only look to the dawning light of the morning star: Jesus Christ. Through his Incarnation, Jesus has entered the darkness of our world in order to bring God’s light of unity, mercy, and peace.
Everything about Jesus’ words and actions enlighten us to the nature of God’s presence in our midst. Jesus seeks to gather what has been scattered; he restores what has been lost; and Jesus shows mercy to those on the margins.
Yet, we know all too well that our world continues to be cloaked in darkness. We must therefore make Zechariah’s prophetic words our own by continuing to bring this light of Christ to all those who today dwell in loneliness, hopelessness, and the grip of sin.
As our Christmas festivities begin later this night, may the dawning light of Christ guide us all from darkness towards unity, mercy, and peace.
Prayer
Lord, as we prepare to celebrate your birth, we echo the song of Zechariah: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free.” You come as our Savior to set us free, Lord. May we use this freedom to make your name known to all we encounter in our lives. Amen.
Saint of the Day
"O happy fault!" announces the ancient text of the Exsultet during the Easter Vigil, "O truly necessary sin of Adam," it cries, "that won for us so great a Redeemer!"
Our liturgies during the Easter season often seem to call to mind the underlying reasons for our salvation more frequently than at Christmas. Christians in the Middle Ages, however, honored Adam and Eve as the parents of humanity and used December 24 to recall the Genesis story that tells of their fall. It was a way to prepare for the Christmas feast of the birth of Jesus, who saved us from death—the consequence of their original sin. Some Christian traditions, such as the Eastern Orthodox, explicitly honor these two figures as saints because they were redeemed by Christ during his harrowing of hell, although they are not on the calendar of saints in the Roman Catholic Church.
Why are Adam and Eve important to us? What do they tell us about what it means to be a human being, made in the image and likeness of God? In his collection of homilies on the Genesis narrative, In the Beginning, Pope Benedict XVI writes:
"The biblical account of creation means to give some orientation in the mysterious region of human-beingness. It means to help us appreciate the human person as God's project and to help us formulate the new and creative answer that God expects from each one of us."
Each of us, like Adam and Eve, are tasked with helping God recreate the world.
Recalling Adam and Eve on December 24 is a natural way to highlight the roles that Jesus and Mary play in our salvation. The Adam and Eve story sets the stage for the saving drama of Jesus’ birth because Adam and Eve remind us of why we need a savior at all.
In the Office of Readings for today, the Liturgy of the Hours features a sermon by St. Augustine that says:
"Truth, then, has arisen from the earth: Christ who said, I am the Truth, was born of a virgin. And justice looked down from heaven: because believing in this new-born child, humanity is justified not by themselves but by God."
The disobedience of Adam and Eve gives us a contrast to the obedience and faithfulness of Jesus and Mary. Adam and Eve are figures who remind us that we are trapped by death; Jesus brings us life, and Mary brings us Jesus.
St. Paul refers to Jesus as the “second Adam” who brings new life to all of humanity, and Mary’s “yes” to the invitation to bear Christ to the world is seen as a saving answer to Eve’s “no” to God when she and Adam sinned in the garden. Our featured image today depicts Adam and Eve's banishment, the promise to Mary, and the birth of Jesus in a stained glass window from the Basilica.
Medieval Christians celebrated December 24 with what was known as a “paradise play.” They would re-enact the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden around an evergreen tree that was decorated with apples to represent the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Some believe this “paradise tree” developed into the Christmas tree, which is often still decorated with round, red balls that resemble apples. The image above shows the Christmas tree beneath the rotunda in the Main Building on Notre Dame's campus.
On Christmas Eve, let us remember our first parents, Adam and Eve, whose fault our Savior comes to mend—come, Lord Jesus!