Christmas Eve
Christmas predates Christ. We have all heard this. Jesus was probably born in the spring, yet the Christian Church has always celebrated his birth at the darkest time of the year. The more dismissive view of this tradition is that it was a way that the Church could co-opt pagan holidays for their own nefarious purposes. The popular Christian counter-explanation for this is the idea that—regardless of when Jesus was actually born—the meteorological symbolism is the chief thing: that when everything was cold and dark, Christ, the true light, entered the world. This certainly resonates with me: The contrast between the light and darkness of the year is pleasurable, as is the juxtaposition of cold and heat. If Christ is the Light of the World, he is brightest when darkness is most pervasive.
Yet even the view that the Christmas is an airbrushed pagan holiday can give us a certain amount of insight into the nature of a God who becomes human, entering our culture from the inside and sanctifying it. To explode another myth, while we’re at it—just because he was laid in a manger doesn’t mean Jesus was born in a stable. Many scholars think that the word translated “inn” in Luke 2 actually means “guest room.” Homes during this time were typically composed of two rooms—a nice inner room for guests, where traveling family stayed, and an outer room in which members of the host family—including animals—stayed as well. Just because Jesus was laid in some poor animal’s food trough does not mean he was born on the edges of town, in some remote stable. On the contrary, while he is surely Holy, surely Other, surely miraculous, he is part of the noise, bother, and disruption of humanity from the very beginning. There may not have been space within the inner room for yet another family member, but he made his dwelling with people. This is paralleled by the story of the shepherds—consummate outsiders whose otherworldly encounter with angels draws them not to further ecstatic mountaintop experiences but rather toward the homely lights of Bethlehem to see a seemingly ordinary human child.
“If God became fully human—if he lived a life as ‘one of us,’ punctuated by moments of excitement, boredom, pain, pleasure and reflection—why then, there is no moment in our own lives which he has not made holy.”
If God became fully human—if he lived a life as ‘one of us,’ punctuated by moments of excitement, boredom, pain, pleasure and reflection—why then, there is no moment in our own lives which he has not made holy. Every aspect of our own lives is a chance not only to connect to our fellow man, but to Almighty God himself through Christ. He is ‘very man of very man.’
Not only that, but through Christ, the objective has somehow entered the subjective, redeeming and dignifying it. As humans we practice rituals, fasts and feasts even when we try to avoid doing so. We are creatures, subject to time and the changes of the year, and it is natural for us to use tradition to remember what is important, and celebrate it. God, it seems, actually may make appearances in these man-made temples, as he did in Solomon’s. In fact, he loves to.
This has become my favorite time of year, not only because it celebrates God’s gift, but also the eagerness (not desperate but joyful) with which he makes himself known, even to pagan kings who find him through pagan sciences like astrology—the important thing, as always, was their hearts. He is willing also to sanctify the Christmas Tree and electric stars we have strewn about the earth, and the carols, liturgical and silly. But we must seek him, the source of all beauty, heavenly, earthly, temporary and permanent. And the more we adore, the more we see to adore, both in him and in all that is being drawn up into him, joining the great dance and feast of love which existed before all worlds.
December 24
Activities & Prayer
O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
- Have dinner together and go to a church service.
- Go to an evening church service in a denomination you’re not familiar with (Christmas Eve is the best time for religious tourism, though if your own church is doing something, make that your first priority).
- Set up the nativity scene or decorate the Christmas tree on this night.
- Watch a Christmas special together on television and drink something warm. Afterwards, discuss what the special got right about Christmas and what it got wrong.
- Listen to Handel’s Messiah (or, even better, go to a performance).
- Listen to an old-timey radio Christmas special. I recommend Dorothy Sayers’ The Man Born to be King, if you can find it. There are others as well, such as this 1939 version of A Christmas Carol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJ3jINcTR0
- Go caroling with friends or family.
- Wait and watch for the first star to appear in the sky. When it does, begin Christmas dinner. Spend the rest of the evening telling stories around the fire.
- In much of Europe, it is traditional to eat fish for Christmas dinner and to wait until after midnight mass to eat other types of food.
- There are more Christmas traditions belonging to different cultures, even within a single country. Talk with an older relative about how they or their parents grew up celebrating Christmas and recover that tradition (this may, of course, take some planning ahead of time).
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Literature
In this fourteenth-century poem, the famous Sir Gawain is searching the land for a strange and enormous Green Knight, for he promised last Christmas to allow him to strike his head off—and he always keeps his promises. He has said farewell to Arthur’s Court at Camelot and is passing through the inhospitable wilderness as he searches for death. But he realizes it is approaching Christmas, and he becomes anxious that he will not be able to attend a Christmas Eve Mass. I begin my translation in the midst of a description of the monsters Gawain must fight in the wilderness, as well as the extreme cold of this time of year.
Somewhile with Worms* he wars and with wolves also,
Somewhile with woodwoses^ that dwelt in the rocks,
Both with bulls and bears, and boars elsewhile,
And trolls that tramped down from the high hill.
Had he not been steadfast and served the Savior,
Doubtless he would have been driven to his death.
For war worried him not so much as winter—far worse–
When the cold clear water from the clouds was shed
And froze ‘ere it could fall to the faded earth.
Near slain with the sleet he slept in his armor
More nights than enough, between naked rocks
While once clamorous waters that ran from the crest
Now hung high over his head in hard icicles.
Thus in peril and pain and plights full hard
Through country comes this knight until Christmas Eve,
Alone.
The knight well at that tide
To Mary made his moan
That she would kindly guide
And bring him to some home…
By a mount on that morning the man rides Into a deep wood that was wild and weird, High hills on each side, and under woods Of hoary oaks full huge, a hundred together; The hazel and the hawthorne were all thus entwined, With rough ragged moss that ran everywhere, With many cheerless birds upon bare twigs, That piteously piped there for pain of the cold. The hero on horseback hurries beneath them Through much marshland and mire, remaining alone, Fretting o’er his fate, lest he should fail To see the service of that Sire that on that same night Of a girl was given our guilt to destroy. And therefore sighing he said: ‘I beseech Thee, Lord, And Mary, who is mildest mother so dear, Of some harbor where highly I might hear mass And Thy Matins tomorrow, meekly I ask, And thereto priestly I pray my Pater and Ave And Creed.’ He rode in his prayer And cried for each misdeed. He crossed himself with care And said: ‘Christ’s Cross me speed.’ He’d not signed himself so but thrice Before seeing through the sedge a stronghold secure, Above a green, on high ground, garnished by boughs Of many thickset trunks attending the moat, A castle the comlookest that ever knight saw Perched on a plain, a park all about… (lines 720-768) Sir Gawain has found a human dwelling in which to celebrate Christmas. But his challenges are, it turns out, just beginning. *that is, dragons. I’ve kept the original “Worms” to preserve the alliteration. ^There isn’t a very good translation for “woodwose.” These are wild men who live in the forest.
Do not be afraid
Daily Scripture
Isaiah 59:15-21 (NIV), Psalm 132 (KJV), Luke 1 (ESV)
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