AN ADVENT "CHRISTMAS CAROL" RETREAT - VIII
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The Readings for morning Mass on December 24 combine two themes: Christ as King and as Savior.
The First Reading features a conversation between King David and the prophet Nathan. David is sitting in his comfortable palace in Jerusalem. A lot of tough years (the kind in the new Angel Studios animated film “David”) are behind him. Israel now enjoys a modicum of peace and prosperity.
David, even when he sins, is acutely aware of his dependence on God: Ps 78 sings of how God “chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.” Now, David thinks: what can I do for God?
The “Ark of the Covenant” is the mysterious presence of God’s dwelling among His People. The Chosen People carried its basket-like tent across Sinai and it’s that tent to which David alludes in today’s reading. “Nathan, should I build a temple?!”
Nathan’s response is Messianically prophetic (which is why we’re reading it at Mass the day before Christmas). You can build God a nice physical house; He will make of your line a royal house that lasts forever. The line of David will last forever, starting with the King whose birth in “the city of David, Bethlehem” we recall tomorrow.
You, David, might feel noblesse oblige in building a temple, but nobody outdoes God in generosity.
The Gospel cites the “Canticle of Zechariah.” Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist. He had been struck mute during Elizabeth’s pregnancy because he doubted Gabriel’s word that he would be a father in his old age. At John’s circumcision, Zechariah’s tongue is unloosed and this song is his first words. It is a hymn to the Messiah, born of the house of David. It is a paean to the prophets, who of old promised God would deliver His People (which turns out to be humanity) “from our enemies,” not Romans but sin and death. “And you, my child John, will be His forerunner, who “will go before the Lord to prepare His way, to give His People knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” Malachi made that point strongly in yesterday's First Reading.
St. Paul announced that the night was almost gone, the day at hand. Zechariah brings that thought to conclusion: “the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our feet in the way of peace.”
Peace to His People on earth – that will be the song of the angels and of the Gloria that comes back on Christmas.
John Grondelski (PhD Fordham) was former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He is a Catholic theologian with special interests in moral theology and the thought of St. John Paul II. All views are his own.
