Following the 6 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve, I noticed that only a handful of people had exited the church following the organ voluntary. When I went back inside after greeting a few people at the door, I noticed that many of those in attendance were still standing around in the pews and aisles, engaged in festive conversation. No one seemed to want to leave. Everyone looked happy. It was a fitting conclusion to a beautiful Mass, with glorious music from the choir and organ, a procession, and the comforting words from holy Scripture that the good news always meets us in the darkness.
If you ask me, that scene after Christmas Mass is a vivid symbol of what our life together in worship and community should be like. The inside of the church should be a place where we feel drawn, like an insect to light, to adore almighty God, have the Word of God broken open for us, and feast on the Body and Blood of Christ. I hope everyone in that church took something of that evening’s palpable joy out into the world with them.
I cherish the fact that Good Shepherd is a genuinely happy place. The sense of happiness on Christmas Eve spilled over into the intimate Mass on Christmas Day, as we sang more carols and heard the great Prologue from John’s Gospel. And the joy of Christmas isn’t over. The Church celebrates this joy right up until Epiphany on January 6, and the Church’s calendar of feasts is the primary means by which we enter into this joy, as well as into the mystery of our faith, which teaches us that joy is also wrapped up with sorrow, like a newborn baby in a manger, wrapped in clothes that eerily resembled his future graveclothes. Indeed, true joy is only known in the midst of earthly travail. The good news is that Christ comes to us in all that grieves and afflicts us.
This Sunday, we will sing yet more carols and continue the celebration of Christmas. I also hope that you will make a point of attending Low Mass on the Feast of the Holy Name, January 1, at 9:30 a.m. The Major Holy Days of Christmastide are part of how we enter into the mystery of this season, and at Good Shepherd, we honor the prayer book’s intention of celebrating these days with the ultimate act of thanksgiving, the Mass. And please mark your calendars for a Procession and Sung Mass on the Eve of the Feast of the Epiphany, January 5 at 7 p.m., as we close out the Christmas season. A potluck will follow in the retreat house. I’m deeply grateful for all who helped decorate the church for Christmas and served in liturgical ministries, as well as to Jack Burnam and the choir for the marvelous music.
May God bless you and your family in these remaining days of Christmas. The seasonal blessing at the end of Mass during Christmastide says it best: “May Christ, who by his Incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with joy and peace.”
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle