"Second Readings"
Explain the Meaning of Christmas

Christmas inspires stories like no other feast. We remember Christmases because of the weather, the people who came to dinner, the events surrounding our celebration, and the stories we tell about all those reasons and more.

Christmas attracts stories so well because it tells one of the best. The birth of Jesus ranks with the greatest stories ever told. Even the local paper traditionally reprints the Christmas story from Luke's Gospel to remind us of the origins of the feast.

At church we expect to hear this great story which set our redemption into motion. Matthew's version is proclaimed at the Vigil Mass of Christmas. Luke's story is retold at midnight Mass. And on Christmas morning you may hear either the episode of the shepherds from Luke or the opening of John's Gospel.

However, there's more to the story than the story. The other scriptures of the Christmas season explain the meaning of Christmas. These passages challenge the listener, since we don't know them as well. Still, they deserve our attention and our prayerful meditation as the season arrives.

This year the major feasts all fall on Sunday. Christmas is followed by New Year's, when we celebrate the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The next Sunday we celebrate Epiphany. Sadly, two feasts which generally mark the Sundays after Christmas move to weekdays this year because of the way the calendar lines up: Holy Family, and the Baptism of the Lord. Consequently, few of our members will hear the scriptures of those feasts this year.

Still, there's plenty to hear and reflect on for the feasts we have. Our liturgical books give us four different sets of texts for Christmas--four completely different groups of readings. We call these the texts for the Vigil Mass, Midnight Mass, Mass at Dawn, and Mass during the Day. The universal church gives your parish permission to proclaim any of the Scripture readings at any time on Christmas evening or day, so you could hear any of them.

What's the advantage of this flexibility? Having multiple texts make sense if you attend more than one Mass on Christmas. That way you hear several different aspects of the Christmas story. However, most people just come once. Being able to hear the readings of any Christmas Mass permits parishes to read St. Luke's familiar story at every Mass if it so chooses. That way everybody gets to hear about the first Christmas. It's probably a better choice on Christmas morning than the passage the lectionary recommends from John's Gospel (1:1-18), a beautiful theological text about the word becoming flesh, but antiseptic when you're expecting to hear about shepherds, angels, animals and a manger.

Here's a quick survey of some of the less familiar New Testament texts you may hear over the next few weeks. Each of these passages is assigned to the second reading for the Christmas season.

* Acts 13:16-17, 22-25. Paul gives an address at the invitation of the officials of a synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia. This introductory proclamation to a new audience tells who Jesus is. The part of the speech we hear at the Christmas Vigil Mass recalls the great promise God made and kept throughout history. Paul praises the service of the great King David, and announces that God has brought to Israel a descendant of David, Jesus, the Savior. It's the closest passage we have to Paul announcing the birth of Jesus.

* Titus 2:11-14. Paul's letter to Titus in Crete admonishes everybody in the community--old and young, free and slave. At Midnight Mass, when we hear Paul say that God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, our thoughts turn to the appearance of the baby at Bethlehem. When Paul says we wait for the manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ, we recall that this Christmas does more than celebrate the past--it looks forward to the glorious Christian future.

* Titus 3:4-7. The Mass at Dawn continues with another citation from the letter to Titus. Here Paul announces that although we lived in sin, the goodness of God appeared in the form of a Savior. Jesus comes not because of our goodness, but because of God's mercy. This text introduces us to the incredible love of God, by meditating on the role of Jesus, whose very name means "Savior".

Hebrews 1:1-6. The Letter to the Hebrews opens with a grand statement about God's revelation. Throughout all of history God has spoken to the chosen people. Now God speaks through a special word: the son. Although this is not a story specifically about Bethlehem--as with many of these passages--this text for the Mass during the Day announces the significance of the coming of Jesus.

* Galatians 4:4-7. On the solemnity of Mary the Mother of God we hear Paul's only reference to Mary. It's subtle. He does not even tell her name. All he says is that when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, to redeem the world. The allusion to Mary is subdued, but because it's the only time Paul even remotely tells of the mother of Jesus, this passage surfaces frequently in the lectionary for feasts of Mary.

* Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6. The Epiphany celebrates the appearance of Christ under the light of a great star. Its emphasis falls on Jesus, not on the magi. The light of Christ, symbolized by the star, shines so brightly, that all nations will come to recognize him as the Messiah. Writing to the Ephesians, Paul admits that the mystery of Christ was made known to him by revelation. This revelation has been given not just to apostles and prophets, but also to the Gentiles. We hear this passage on Epiphany because the magi who worshipped Christ represent the Gentiles, those outside the old covenant. Now God reveals the mystery to them. Their worship of Christ represents the global vision of God's plan.

These passages aren't as easy to remember as the great story of Christmas. But meditating on them will help us appreciate the big story even more.

[ Published in the Catholic Key for December 24, 1994 ]