Christmas is Christ’s Mass
It’s been said that the Christmas story is the story of the gospel in miniature.
I’d like to share a “cliff notes” version of that gospel story…
The Christmas story didn’t begin in Bethlehem. It started with our need for a Savior to set us free from the slavery of sin.
Jesus chose to save us by becoming one of us. His coming was prophesied and awaited.
Do you know what Christmas means?
Christmas means Christ’s mass
The mass was prefigured in the Old Testament just as Christ was. The Passover Lamb was sacrificed. The Israelites had to eat the Lamb for the sacrifice to be applied to their household. As time went on, a Passover “Memorial”Sacrifice was celebrated “in memory” of their delivery out of Egypt.
Fast forward to hear Jesus saying, “do this in memory of me”. St. Paul said, “Christ our passover has been sacrificed, therefore let us keep the feast”. Which feast? The passover.
The Eucharist is a memorial of Christ’s Passover, that is, the work of salvation accomplished by the life, death and resurrection of Christ, a work made present in the mass.
God gave the Israelites supernatural food from heaven to sustain the them on their journey to the promised land. Daily bread from heaven. (Spoiler alert: Jesus would later teach us to pray, “give us our daily bread”). He is our daily bread.
Mary carried Jesus in her womb. Jesus is:
The Word. In the flesh-fully man and fully God.
The Bread of Life. The living bread from heaven (“my flesh is real food”).
The Rod of iron, the Ruler who came back to life, our High priest.
Mary, is considered the Ark of the New Covenant. Why:
She carried Christ who is the fulfillment of the things that the Ark of the Covenant carried as types.
The Ark of the Covenant carried:
Bread from Heaven (manna).
God’s Word (stone tablets)
Aaron’s Rod that came back to life).
Christ didn’t fulfill those things within the Ark of the Covenant “symbolically”. He IS the WORD made flesh. He IS the living bread come down from heaven. He IS the high priest forever. His memorial sacrifice isn’t symbolic either.
Then a Savior was born! Emmanuel, God is with us!
Jesus was laid in a manger (a feeding trough for sheep) in Bethlehem (which means ‘House of Bread’)
The Bread of Life grew. He miraculously turned water into wine.
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”, said John.
Jesus miraculously multiplied bread to feed the people. He didn’t make more bread. He didn’t divide it into 5,000 pieces. He multiplied what existed. He can do that because he’s God. That’s what he does in every mass.
At the time of the Passover, Jesus instituted the new covenant.
“This cup is the “New Covenant” in my blood. This is my body”. And then he said, “Do this in ‘memory’of me.” He used the same word as the Memorial sacrifice of the Passover. He didn’t mean “do this as a symbol to remember me”. In a similar way that the Israelites participated in the original Passover with the Memorial sacrifice, Christians are to continue to participate in Christ’s once and for all paschal sacrifice as Memorial.
Jesus suffered, died and was buried. He rose again!
“Whoever repents and is baptized will be saved”, said Jesus.
“For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ and have been baptized into this death and resurrection!”, wrote Paul.
Paul himself was told, “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins”.
“Baptism now saves you”, said Peter.
“No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and Spirit”, said Jesus.
“He saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. (1 Peter 3:21-22).
Throughout sacred scripture, water and spirit is always how God starts something new-beginning in Genesis 1:1. We are made new creations in Christ!
“Christ, our Passover has been sacrificed”, said St. Paul, “therefore, let us keep the feast!”.What feast?
This paschal (passover)feast.
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.”, says Paul. He doesn’t say guilty of profaning a symbol. He doesn’t say profaning Christ’s spiritual presence. He says “the body and blood of the Lord”.
Manna was the Israelite’s food for their journey to the promised land.
Christ himself is our food for our journey to the new Jerusalem. He feeds us himself in the Eucharist.
Christ in the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Christian Faith. Why? Because we receive Him- his glorified body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.
Jesus said, Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
How do we remain in him? He said
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.”
Malachi’s prophecy (1:10–11) that the Lord would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have ‘a pure offering’ made to him by the Gentiles in every place was a a prophecy of the Eucharist. The the only pure sacrifice was Christ’s sacrifice. And it’s offered up in the mass in union with those John saw in heaven crying out out “worthy is the Lamb who was slain!”
The Christmas story is that the Word made flesh came to dwell with us. But he did more than dwell among us.
He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!
Just as the Israelite’s worship required their participation by eating the passover lamb, we participate in Christ’s saving work by eating the Lamb.
John witnessed the liturgy in heaven which looks a lot like like liturgy of the mass. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain! Let’ us celebrate his coming in Christ’s mass.