Welcome To The Twelve Days of Christmas!

The Nativity of the Lord Vigil Mass

Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29; Acts 13:16-17, 22-25; Matthew 1:1-25

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet.
Isaiah 62:1

Welcome to the Twelve Days of Christmas!  The Church recognizes that the great feast of the Nativity of the Lord is too good to celebrate for just a day.  That is why Christmas is celebrated for 12 days. 

Culturally, as Americans, we have adopted the notion that the Christmas season begins at Thanksgiving and runs until Christmas Day.  This coincides with the heavy marketing that takes place during that time to capitalize on the tradition of buying gifts for loved ones.  Decorations go up, the music shifts over, Santa appears in malls, and we begin to send out our Christmas cards.  This really is a lot of fun and I certainly don’t want to find fault with it.  However, I offer a couple of caveats.

First, the time most Americans are referring to as the Christmas season is really the season of Advent in the Church.  Advent is not “pre-Christmas”.  It is a season to itself in which we are reminded of the coming of the Lord, both in time and at the end of time.  Consequently, we prepare ourselves for His coming.  Advent lasts from the Sunday closest to St. Andrew’s Day [November 30] until Vespers [Evening Prayer] or the Vigil Mass for Christmas on December 24, whichever is celebrated first.

Second, the Christmas season, according to the Church, begins as noted on the evening of December 24 in anticipation of Christmas Day on December 25.  Its celebration runs for twelve days until January 5, also known as Twelfth Night.  Then follows the Epiphany on January 6.  Finally, it concludes approximately one week later with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord.

This year, especially in light of the year it’s been, I want to offer reflections on each day of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  I hope this will serve to bring hope, joy, and encouragement as well as to aid us in a return to the Church’s intention that we keep this feast for the full 12 days.

This will require a short explanation in the Church’s current calendar.  Most of the Church now celebrates Epiphany on the Sunday nearest January 6.  This year it will be January 3.  However, there is an option for celebrating the Second Sunday after Christmas and Epiphany on its traditional day of January 6.  To keep with the theme of Twelve Days of Christmas I will be following the traditional calendar.

We have been hearing from Isaiah throughout Advent.  His prophecies announce the coming of the King.  He provides a great theme for us as we enter into the Christmas celebration; one of such joy that we cannot remain silent.  At last, after all the waiting, our Lord is here.

Keep in mind that Isaiah wrote roughly 800 years before the birth of Christ.  He was not the first to prophecy the coming Messiah.  The people of Israel had been waiting centuries and it would be centuries more before its fulfillment.  Now at last the day has arrived.

This same sense of overwhelming joy is intended to characterize our own celebrations. 

We catch a glimpse of this in St. Paul’s sermon recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles.  He relates the events leading up to the blessed occasion and then plunges in, knowing that he is the first to announce this good news to his hearers.

I love the reading from the first chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel as he begins by relating the many names in the genealogy of Christ.  It probably seems tedious to some, but each time I read it or hear it read I am thinking of the stories that go along with it.  Prophets and Kings are in this lineage, but so are foreigners and grave sinners. 

Recall the scandals: Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar who was his daughter-in-law.  Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab who had been a prostitute.  David became the father of Solomon by Bathsheba- she who was the wife of Uriah.  He slept with her while Uriah was loyally serving in battle and to cover up his affair he had Uriah killed.  Yet, Paul recounts that God said of David, “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will carry out my every wish.”  God sees who we are intended to be, not just who we have become.  What hope lies in that fact!

With all of this I find myself stirred in my soul.  This is just too good to keep to myself.  This is what it means when we heartily wish others, “Merry Christmas!” 

I encourage you to take this to your prayer.  Allow the Lord to illumine it in your own heart and wait for the joy to well up.  Maybe you won’t feel it.  That’s fine.  It’s true just the same. 

Throughout this season, boldly and joyfully wish others a Merry Christmas.  Don’t worry if they don’t share our faith or someone might be offended.  The good news is for everyone and that’s the news we bring.  Ask God to show you ways you can even go further and tell someone more about this good news.  Perhaps you will find the opportunity to encourage someone who has been so down because of the year’s events, because they lost a loved one, or because they can’t imagine how they could be loved by God after some of the things they’ve done.  You can point to the stories of Jesus’ ancestors to find examples of why there is always hope for God’s forgiveness as long as we look for it.

At last, the time has come.  Christ is born!  I will not be silent!