I received a Christmas letter from the Poor Clare Sisters in Belleville, Illinois. I was so taken by some of the paragraphs in that letter that I have fashioned my homily on them.
In the First Book of Chronicles, chapter sixteen, we read that David appointed certain Levites to minister before the Ark of the Covenant, to celebrate, thank and praise the Lord, the God of Israel, to sing for the first time certain praises of the Lord. These Levites were the guilds of musicians who eventually composed a number of psalms that are still used in our liturgy today. The psalm that forms our responsorial today takes some of its verses directly from chapter sixteen of the First Book of Chronicles.
During his life on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ would have participated in the worship of the Temple liturgies. On his lips, Psalm 96 took on an even deeper meaning. Little did anyone realize that the young Rabbi from Nazareth would be the object of the new song to be sung in the eternal Jerusalem as proclaimed in chapter five of the Book of Revelation: “You have redeemed us for God with Your own Blood!”
In a sense, Psalm 96 was “made” for someone like St. Francis of Assisi. Its characteristic themes were at the heart of the Poverello’s prayer and personality: joy, praise, thanksgiving, love of the divine Name, desire to proclaim God’s salvation, and wonder and exultation before all of God’s creation.
But it is in an ancient gloss on the psalm text that we find the key to St. Francis’ affinity for Psalm 96. Centuries before Francis, an unknown copyist made a significant addition to verse ten: “Proclaim to the nations: ‘The Lord reigns!’” With the addition of two Latin words which are translated “from the wood,” Psalm 96 proclaims that the cross is the throne upon which Jesus, the King, reigns.
In his life of St. Francis, Thomas of Celano wrote in chapter thirty a description of St. Francis that reads: “Francis used to recall with regular meditation the words of Christ and recollect His deed with most attentive perception. Indeed, so thoroughly did the humility of the Incarnation and the charity of the Passion occupy his memory that he scarcely wanted to think of anything else.” Ever since those words were penned, Franciscans have recognized that the cross or passion of Jesus and the humble manger of Bethlehem are inseparable in our understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. If we pay attention to the lyrics of many of the carols that are sung during this time of year, it becomes crystal clear that Jesus was born so that he could die and, by dying, save us from our sins.
For instance, in “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”:
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's pow'r
When we were gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Or in “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”:
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.So it is that even as we revel in the wonder of Christmas, we find the real meaning of the story of the birth in Bethlehem on Calvary hill. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God desires to be in a relationship with us, a love relationship. As we come together this evening to worship and adore the Babe of Bethlehem, we are called to love God in return.
May the peace and the joy of Christmas fill your lives tonight and throughout the coming year.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator