Christmas Eve

✠ | CLICK TO VIEW TODAY'S READINGS

The Metropolitan Diary section of The New York Times on Christmas Day in 1985 featured a piece about a man named David Storch, a music librarian at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. Mr. Storch had checked out the score for Handel’s “Messiah” from the Brooklyn Public Library in preparation for a Christmas concert. Somehow, it never registered as being loaned to him, and during the time it was in his possession, the library staff had been frantically searching for the score. On the day that Mr. Storch returned the score, he handed it to the librarian who joyfully exclaimed “The Messiah is here!” “The Messiah is back!” The commotion caused all eyes in the library to turn and stare at Mr. Storch. Of course, in typical New York fashion, within a few seconds, everyone returned to their business. Clearly it takes a lot more than a messianic announcement to sidetrack Brooklynites.

And here we are…Christmas Eve, the last day of Advent. Many of us are in a final push to finish preparations for our festivities. Maybe we are wrapping gifts, writing Christmas cards, or decorating the tree. We may also be trying to determine which virtual, drive in, or in person Mass to attend as we shift our attention from mistletoe to the Messiah.

Today’s Gospel, taken from Luke, tells of Zechariah’s experience of God. Luke’s Gospel is replete with Christmas canticles…the songs of the angels, of Mary, of Zechariah and Simeon. We read how God has come to different people in different ways, inserting them into the chaos with the invitation to trust, love and be faithful, while steadfastly sharing the promise of joy and peace.

Prior to this particular reading, the Angel Gabriel had silenced Zechariah because he wavered…he questioned God. I have no doubt the same fate would have befallen me, because like Zechariah, I need proof. I need assurances. However, unlike Zechariah, mine can be a fickle faith. I frequently yearn for validation that hope is present, that peace isn’t a fantasy, that joy is within us and that love triumphs. In the absence of any definitive answer, I become inert and I am silenced, waiting for a sign.

This Advent has been different, and yet the same. Different, because of COVID and all it brought into 2020, and I include the moments of joy as well as the overwhelming sorrow. The same, in that we have found the rhythm of our Advent prayer as we journey to Bethlehem. Our preparation for Jesus’ birth has invited us to anticipate, await, remember and rejoice in the coming of the Messiah. Glimmers of hope, pockets of joy, and most definitely signs of peace and abundant love have emerged from our muted silence. Advent opens us up to be a little more attuned to those signs, signs we might have missed if everything had been “normal”.

I once heard a story about a woman who went to the post office and asked the clerk if there were any Christmas stamps she could purchase. “Nope,” the bored guy said to her, “we just have the Liberty Bell and some lady holding a baby.”

On Christmas, God fulfills the hopes, long promised to the world, as we hear proclaimed in today’s readings from Samuel, the Psalms and Luke. God did it in the most unexpected, unconventional way, where “some lady holding a baby” changed the world. Perhaps some of us, like Zechariah have waited and watched in silence and not without a bit of trepidation. Some have prepared with patience and attention, while others have been/will be surprised, terrified, and/or delighted.

For all of us, God came then and we believe God comes now. “The Messiah is here!” “The Messiah is back!” Maybe tomorrow, when we hear that exultation and see the commotion, we can look up and let our stares linger for a little bit longer than usual with wonder and awe. And this time, when we go back to our business, we will be changed.

Forever.

Merry Christmas.

Alexandria M. Egler, PhD

Executive Director

Mission, Ministry & Interfaith Dialogue

St. Francis College