Midnight Mass, 2010

 ‘And the glory of the Lord shone round them.’
 How everything tonight conspires! This is surely one of the luminous moments of the Church’s year. The very fact that it is night, and the very middle of the night - the white vestments, the candles, our tasteful (!) decorations - the long Vigil, the chants, the readings - even the blessed snow, ‘snow on snow’. Everything conspires on behalf of Christmas.  ‘And the glory of the Lord shone round them.’
 Family events, family difficulties, work, our health: these are the things that normally fill our lives, our days. And in the background, always the big bad world. And if we have a cold now, we’ll still have it when we go home after Mass. If there’s a problem at work or at home, it’s not going to vanish in these two hours. Nor the big bad world. That’s here too tonight, in an ancient guise. The might of the Assyrian Empire lies behind the words of Isaiah: it’s the bar across the shoulders, the rod of the oppressor. And the power of Rome stands behind the Gospel, the great Augustus measuring his world, determining all unwittingly, that Jesus will be born where he was meant to be born. And were we Iraqi Christians, the threats of Al Qaeda would be doing their best to curdle our Christmas. The big bad world will not be notably less so by the time this Christmas has passed. And the shepherds must just have gone back to their sheep.
 
 And yet tonight - or rather what tonight contains, Who the manger contains - is not a dream, not a fantasy. It is the glory of the Lord shining round us. And this glory changes, rearranges, everything.  Glory, in biblical usage, is linked to light. Tonight is light. Isaiah said it: ‘The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone.’ Paul says it too: ‘God’s grace has been revealed.’ The Greek is far stronger: there has been an epiphany, Paul says, a radiant manifestation, a bursting star of Grace. ‘And the glory of the Lord shone round them.’ And this glory, this light changes, rearranges everything. It is the real revolution. He was born, said the Pope yesterday morning, ‘far from the centres of earthly power.’ And if you listen carefully in the silence of this night, listen with the ear of the heart, you can hear crash upon crash: it is the idols collapsing, it’s the towers falling, the world’s Towers of Babel. You can feel the yoke being lifted from the shoulders and hear the rod of the oppressor being snapped. You can smell the fire burning the cloaks rolled in blood. You can see rising up round the manger of Bethlehem, generation after generation, the people of the Beatitudes, the poor in spirit, peacemakers, hunger-ers and thirst-ers after justice, those inwardly free of everything that does not lead to God and all worldly ambition. You can hear the land and all it bears rejoice, all the trees of the wood shout for joy. You can hear the heavenly host praising God and singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace among those whom he favours.’ You can see the world being reborn- from the ramshackle stable of Bethlehem.
 ‘And the glory of the Lord shone round them.’

 This Mass will pass, and we will go back to our sheep. This Christmas will pass, and nothing in a sense will have changed. It may even, of course, get worse! But the glory of Christmas night, shining in the words of Scripture, shining in the Liturgy of the Church, radiant in the Body and Blood of Christ - that needn’t pass. It can enter into us, if like Mary we open the door of faith. It can go with us. It can shine in us as unquenchable hope. It can free us from everything oppressing us. It may seem as weak as a newborn child in the dark. But it is the glory of the Lord. It puts all else into perspective. It opens an eternal prospect. It frees us to love. It has transfigured life after life for two thousand years. In the patience of God, it can even transfigure us. It can even shine through us on others, giving life. And one day it will transfigure everything.    
‘And the glory of the Lord shone round them.’ It shines round us. Let us enter it!

         Fr Hugh, O. S. B.