Christmas is not over, although many think it is. In the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, we are in the midst of the Christmas Octave—an eight-day celebration of Christmas. So it is that in the Divine Office that priests, religious and lay persons pray—the official prayer of the Church—the psalms and canticles are those of Christmas Day. Christmas is far too rich in significance, far too profound to exhaust and mine in just 24 hours, hence the Octave. And although Christmas trees have been sprouting since September (the Philippines is known for its extended Christmases) and twinkling lights have sent electric bills soaring for many households for quite some time now, the Season of Christmas really started only with the Midnight Mass of December 24—and most parishes of the Philippines celebrate Midnight Masses well before midnight!—and will come to a close only with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Sunday after Epiphany, which is the Sunday after the New Year! Unfortunately, we mix up things in this country of many confusions: All Saints and All Souls, Lent and the Solemn Paschal Triduum, Advent and Christmas! Most are not comfortable greeting others “Merry Christmas” after December 25—feeling that the otherwise very cheerful and holy greeting has passed its due date! But we should go on greeting each other “Merry Christmas”. There are many things in this country we must bring to an end speedily, but Christmas is not one of them.
The day after December 25 is the memorial of St. Stephen, protomartyr of the Church— and any thoughtful Christian will ask what sense there might be in marring the merry season with the remembrance of a a gruesome death—because Stephen was stoned, as Jews and Muslims stone heretics. It is so easy to be sentimental about Christmas, and indeed, the Nativity Scene is idyllic, not only a poignant portrayal of an event in the rather distant past, but an ever-new, eternal invitation to tenderness. But kneeling in adoration before the manger should be the first step in a long journey that can take the faithful disciple to the center of an angry rabble that will show neither consideration nor mercy, much less tenderness. He who lies so serenely, helpless in his infancy, will make demands on those who follow him, and these are not paltry at all!
On the 27th, the second day of the Octave, it is John, the Evangelist, who is remembered, and to one who listens attentively to the readings of the Mass, the connection should not be too difficult to grasp. The Gospel of the Day Mass of Christmas consists of the sublime words of the Prologue to John’s Gospel that soar in their theological insight and carry us to the height beyond all heights where the Word was, in the beginning, with God, and was God. Once more, we are taken beyond the the romance of Bethlehem to the recesses of the Mystery of the Incarnation—the reality of the Word-become-flesh. He who cries like any child cries, whose laughter will echo through the home in Nazareth like that of any growing child’s, whose words will mesmerize thousands, frighten leaders and shame hypocrites, challenge generations and ages of humankind is the very Word of God made flesh…Verbum caro factum!
There then follows the commemoration of that terrible affair of Herodian paranoia—the slaughter of the innocents. But it is certainly wrong to be consumed with hatred for Herod or to be caught up in the debate about historicity. Karl Rahner once wrote of “anonymous Christians”, those who are not explicitly within the organization of the Church or who may not even know Jesus Christ, but who live the truth as it comes to them in their best lights and who are docile to the promptings of an honest conscience and who therefore revel in the light of Christ. The holy innocents could very well be such “anonymous Christians”, and it is in that vein that the Church honors their martyrdom. But this blood-drenched day in the calendar of the Church is the narrative explication of what John so succinctly says of the Word-become-flesh: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. It was because of Herod’s psychotic fear of the “Newborn King of the Jews” that he had the innocents slaughtered. Herod, the king of the Jews, did not want the newborn king of the Jews alive! The martyrdom of the innocents prophesied the martyrdom Jesus himself was to suffer, because, and that which many of his disciples would suffer become his kingdom is not of this world!
For all the glitz and the glitter, the cheer of Christmas carols and the endless feasts and treats, the greetings many times heartfelt, but sometimes, regrettably trite, Christmas is for the thoughtful—as it is a call to prayerful thankfulness for the difference it has made to human history, and to my life and yours!
rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@outlook.com
