Monday, December 25, 2017

Nativity of our Lord (mass at dawn)

(Isaiah 62:11-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:15-20)

Nativity of our Lord (mass at dawn)

(Isaiah 62:11-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:15-20)

African-American spiritual singers have taken up where today’s gospel begins.  Like the angels in Bethlehem, they exhort listeners to “go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.” We, like the shepherds after seeing the infant Jesus, are to make known the message that has been told us - salvation in Jesus’ name.

As the Letter to Titus read today expresses, he has saved all of us through the bath of rebirth.  This experience is nothing less than incorporation into his body, the Church.  We are reborn in ever new, ever strong flesh to love the invisible God in our neighbors.  Doing so brings the unimaginable joy of eternal life with our heavenly Father.


Often enough African-Americans who have weathered many years faithful to the Savior demonstrate the spirit of this rebirth.  I remember the elderly women who washed clothes in our house of formation.  They were almost always upbeat and gracious.  More importantly, they were dependable for prayers to see us through the trials of introspection and scrutiny.