6 minute read
Questions of Faith
Comment
Father Joshua Rodrigue
Christmas Masses
A couple of us at work were talking about Christmas Masses, especially Midnight Mass. When we were younger the Midnight Mass had a greater attendance than it does today. It seems that people are more likely to go to the early Vigil Mass rather than Midnight Mass or even Mass on Christmas Day. What does the church recommend?
The church celebrates the Nativity of the Lord with four Masses – the Vigil Mass, Mass during the Night, Mass at Dawn and Mass during the Day. After the new Roman Missal of 2009, the Mass at Midnight changed to the Mass during the Night. With that change in name, no longer did the Mass have to be celebrated at midnight, but instead at any time during the night. Some parishes still keep that Mass at midnight while others have decided to move it up to an earlier time at night. Perhaps a look at each of the Masses and their development over the centuries will help to understand how they relate to each other.
The Vigil Mass
Liturgically speaking, a vigil may be observed by keeping watch during the night as a devotional exercise or ritual observance on the eve of a major religious feast or solemnity. Several solemnities, such as the Nativity of John the Baptist, the Assumption, and Christmas, are given their own vigil Mass, which is used at Mass on the evening of the preceding day. The readings and prayers of such vigil Masses differ from the texts used in the Masses on the day itself.
Historically, the vigil Mass is not included as one of the three Masses of Christmas. It was a celebration on the afternoon of Dec. 24 just before the celebration of the solemnity. The proper texts of the vigil carry with them the sense that the Christmas celebration is near but not yet made present. The Gospel acclamation even starts with the word “tomorrow,” and the first reading from Isaiah 62 speaks entirely in terms of the future. The tone of the vigil of Christmas is mostly one of expectation, not of proclaiming salvation that is already made present.
Matthew’s Gospel proclaimed at the vigil begins with the genealogy of Jesus and ends right at the birth. Much to the disappointment of some parishioners when hearing this Gospel, there is no baby in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, no ox and donkey, no angels singing “Glory to God in the highest,” no shepherds, no sheep. Priests have unfortunately and incorrectly used the readings for the Mass during the Night and applied them to the vigil because parishioners want to hear the story of the Nativity. Isn’t it rather odd hearing about the birth of Jesus in the middle of the night and singing “Silent Night” and “O, Holy Night” when it is still daylight?
The difficulty is that the vigil, in practice, is now seen as the first Mass of Christmas rather than being a Mass of expectation, bridging the waiting and longing of Advent with the fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah celebrated at Christmas.
Mass during the Night
Various traditions place the birth of Jesus at midnight, and so the first Mass celebrated for centuries was at midnight. This Mass is sometimes called the Angel’s Mass as it recalls the announcement of the angels to the shepherds, proclaiming that Jesus Christ was born. Christians of Jerusalem in the late fourth century commemorated the Christmas mystery with a midnight vigil at Bethlehem followed by a torchlight procession to Jerusalem, arriving at dawn to the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis in Greek).
Nearly 50 years later in Rome, Pope Sixtus III built the great basilica of St. Mary Major with a chapel that reproduced the cave of Bethlehem. The relic of the crib of Christ, still venerated today in St. Mary Major, was placed in this chapel in the seventh century. Pope Sixtus III, probably inspired by the custom of the midnight vigil held in Jerusalem, instituted the practice of a Mass at midnight in this grotto-like chapel.
While the practice of celebrating Midnight Mass continues, many churches now hold their “Midnight” Mass at an earlier hour. With it now being Mass during the Night, even the Pope has celebrated this Mass at an earlier time in St. Peter’s Basilica, and other church parishes have also favored an earlier time in order to meet various pastoral needs, such as families with children not being out as late and also giving musicians or choir members who are scheduled to play or sing again on Christmas day a little extra time to sleep.
One part of this liturgy that is not celebrated at the other Masses is the proclamation of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord from the Roman Martyrology, which is chanted or recited before the beginning of this Mass and “draws upon Sacred Scripture to declare in a formal way the birth of Christ. It begins with creation and relates the birth of the Lord to the major events and personages of sacred and secular history. The particular events contained in the announcement help pastorally to situate the birth of Jesus in the context of salvation history” (from The Roman Missal).
Mass at Dawn
In Rome around 550 A.D., the Pope and some members of the curia celebrated a second Mass sometime before dawn at the Church of St. Anastasia, whose feast day also fell on Dec. 25 and had nothing to do with Christmas. Perhaps inspired by the practice of the dawn Mass in the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) in Jerusalem, and coupled with the similarity of the name Anastasia, this celebration transforms into a second Christmas Mass.
This Mass is celebrated at
Comment
dawn, and the readings highlight the shepherds’ role in proclaiming the good news of Christ’s birth and for this reason became known as the Shepherds’ Mass. Sacred Scripture read at this Mass also draws a parallel between Christ and the sun. As the darkness of the land flees from the rays of the rising sun, it recalls how Jesus, the Light of the World, dispels the darkness of sin and death at his birth.
Mass during the Day
The final Christmas Mass is celebrated in the fullness of daylight, signifying that the promised Son of God has now been revealed to the whole world and so is traditionally referred to as the Kings’ Mass. While there is no mention of the three kings, the readings and prayers for the Mass rejoice in the coming of Jesus and invite people of all nations to worship the King of kings and look forward to the coming of the Magi at Epiphany. The readings, along with the magnificent prologue of John’s Gospel, focus upon the profound mystery of the Incarnation, of the Word of God becoming flesh.
Conclusion
Because the Incarnation is so great a mystery, all four celebrations of the Nativity are necessary to reveal various aspects of the truth of God becoming incarnate to save and redeem us. While our choice of Mass for Christmas might more so be based upon a convenient time – early Mass, home for supper and a family gathering, perhaps exchange some Christmas presents, put the children in bed at a decent hour and have a leisurely Christmas morning to follow – perhaps this year choose to go to Mass during the Night or on Christmas day to encompass the joy of proclaiming the birth of our Savior.
Possibly look at it this way, you won’t have to go two hours early to get a seat and then be packed like sardines. This may allow you truly to enter into the joy and peace of the season. Nevertheless, whichever Mass you attend may you have a blessed Christmas. BC
