A Homily for the Sunday Mass of the Vigil of Christmas

​+ When it falls on a Sunday it is always a surprise to omit the fourth Sunday of Advent in favour of the vigil of Christmas, and to sing its Mass festally, with its Alleluia verse and with the organ. We have not yet dared to chant the “Gloria in excelsis Deo”—that is reserved for after midnight—but already, after Prime, we have announced Christ’s birth. We are in purple still, but our joy and expectation is welling up, for as the introit of this Mass sings: Today we shall come to know that the Lord will come and rescue us, and tomorrow we shall see His glory!
 
It is a beautiful sensation, and rightly today do we prepare with even greater intensity to celebrate the feast of Christ’s saving birth. Rightly do we busy ourselves in sacristies and kitchens, making ready for Christ and for our family and friends and giving what we can of ourselves and of what we have to He whose coming we celebrate and to those with whom we celebrate it.
 
But it is important that amidst all we have to do and wish to do today and tomorrow we do not lose ourselves, that we do not forget precisely what it is that we are celebrating. For this is not the vigil of some generic feast or holiday: it is the day on which we attend with festal anticipation the birth of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, made man for our salvation. “You shall call Him Jesus,” Saint Joseph is told in his dream, “for he is to save His people from their sins.”
 
Salvation from sin is that for which we are waiting. Nothing more. Nothing less.
 
God the Father sent His Beloved Son into the world, to become a man born of the Virgin Mary so that “His people”—by God’s grace, you and I—may find forgiveness for our sins. The feast for which we wait is not about smiling and pretending all is fine, thank you very much. No. It is about facing the reality of the Fall, of personal sin and evil and of celebrating God’s unfathomable mercy in sending His Only Beloved Son to save us from the consequences of our wrongdoing, if only we will repent and open ourselves to His mercy and forgiveness.
 
In the light of recent events it needs to be said very clearly at this moment in the life of the Church that God did not send His Son to bless sin. The Incarnation is not about affirming us in our wrongdoing, no matter how fashionable it may be to pretend that that particular type of wrongdoing is more socially acceptable at the moment. No. God calls us to repentance, and through repentance to live in His grace. He calls us to “go and sin no more” (cf. Jn 8), not to smile for the cameras and continue sinning.
 
That Church authorities are—at best—causing confusion on this question is a matter of grave concern, and in the light of this we must be utterly clear: God’s blessing is given to all repentant sinners who truly seek the conversion of their life, no matter what their sin. But without repentance, this is simply not possible.
 
My brothers and sisters, the joy of this day, the joy of the morrow, is to be found in the salvation that is offered to us by God made man. Let us not insult Him, or even blaspheme Him, through a prideful refusal to repent of our sins in the humility that is our due. For so to do would be to refuse the gift of Christmas, preferring rather to save ourselves by our own means (which is, of course, to court our damnation).
 
As we approach the altar this morning, let us renew our contrition for our sins and open our hearts anew to His gift, to His grace, that, sinners as we all are, as we celebrate this feast we may receive the grace and humility we need truly to repent of our sins and so come to enjoy the salvation which God became man in Jesus Christ to bring to us all.  +