Letter of December 12, 2006

The First Christmas Carol

In the hectic days before Christmas there seems to be one increase each year of ‘Why bother, because after Christmas everything goes on as before”. Every year it’s the same thing: same ‘Christmas spirit’, a few kind deeds and pleasant greetings, a few expensive presents and then everything goes on as before. A true Christmas is not for skeptics, but believers.

All the external, the joyful mood, the Christmas tree, gifts, excited children, decorations, and Christmas music are the beautiful echoes of the greatest of events that brings love and life to those who welcome our Redeeming Lord. It’s more than a passing emotional high or mood. It is the CHILD who counts. Yes, God comes to us as one of us, to dwell among us and gift us with a new life that transforms us into men and women of God.

The thousands of Christmas Carols each echo the First Carol which the Shepherds heard. It is a heavenly carol. The lyrics are words of God. They are sung by a multitude of the heavenly host with the angels who spoke to the shepherds. They glorify and praise God for the good news - “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests”.

What did the angel say to the shepherds? Is this message for us too? The words are so familiar that we pass over them quickly - “Do no be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.news: For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swadling clothes and lying in a manger.

That divine revelation and saving event is the content that inspires the First Christmas Carol. It’s the standard for all the Carols that were and are still to come. The key word is PEACE for people of goodwill. Jesus is Prince of Peace who brings us into peace with God and everyone.

We give glory to God when we do God’s will. That’s the way to peace. Mary and Joseph accept God’s will and bring Jesus into the world. The shepherds like, Mary and Joseph, believed and accepted God’s call. They heard the angel and multitude of angels. In faith they took god at his word and accepted God’s Good News.

For the shepherds, after the first Christmas, like for us, “everything goes on just as before”. Did they get the past-Christmas ‘blahs’? Did they fall into a funk of disappointment and depression?

St. Luke tells that after they heard the angel proclaim the Good News, they believed. With the voices of the multitude of angels singing the first Christmas Carol, they said: “Let us go to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us”. They went in haste and found Mary and Joseph and the CHILD lying in the manger.

They made known the message about the child to everyone. Like us, the shepherds returned to ‘their flocks and everything that goes on’ but changed. Luke writes: “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them”. They joined their voices to the multitude of angels in the First Christmas Carol that changed their lives. The divine lyrics of this Carol, fulfilled in Jesus became their new life. They not only glorified and praised with angels, but lived the First Christmas Carol.