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I am very grateful for Fr. Cipolla's homily for the day. I heard Mass at Holy Innocents today and it was certainly the first time I remember ever attending
a Christmas Vigil Mass in the Extraordinary Form. (My pre-Novus Ordo memories date to my childhood when my Christmas recollections are dominated by the
Midnight Mass and the nine-day Mass novena that precedes it starting December 16, that is observed in the Philippines at cock's crow, hence the dawn Masses are
called 'misa de gallo'). Fr Cipolla does the great service of picking out the passages that made the EF Mass today so special...As St.Joseph devotee, I especially
love the Gospel reading.
Sermon for the Vigil of Christmas
By Fr. Richard Cipolla
St. Mary's Church
Norwalk, Connecticut
December 24, 2017
“And she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call His Name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) -
from the Gospel reading of the Christmas Vigil Mass
Extraordinary Form
How wonderful to be able to celebrate the Vigil of Christmas today in a Solemn Mass on this Sunday! The Novus Ordo calendar keeps this as the Fourth Sunday in Advent and the focus of the readings is on the Blessed Virgin Mary.
But the Traditional Roman rite insists on continuing with the theme of expectancy that is at the heart of Advent. The introit, the gradual and alleluia, the opening Collect: the focus is on tomorrow both in a literal and profoundly religious sense.
The Introit sings: “This day you will know that the Lord will come and save us; you will see his glory.”
This verse is from the book of Exodus where Moses speaks to his people who are starving in the wilderness of the heavenly manna that will save them from death. The Liturgy applies this to the birth of the One who is the bread from heaven who will give eternal life to those who eat of this bread.
St Paul, in the Epistle reading from Romans speaks of God’s promises to the Jews that have been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ: his birth, his teaching and above all the power of his Resurrection and its promise of eternal life to those with faith in Him.
The Gradual repeats the words of the Introit and the Alleluia sings: “Tomorrow shall the iniquity of the earth be abolished; and the Savior of the world shall reign over us”. And tomorrow is indeed when we celebrate the conquering of sin and death in the birth of Christ.
But the magnificent Collect of the Day prays with such eloquence all these meanings of tomorrow:
"O God, You fill us with gladness each year in the expectation of our Redemption. Grant that your only-begotten Son, whom we joyfully receive as our Redeemer, may be seen by us also without dread, when He comes as our judge, our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit word without end. Amen."
And the Gospel speaks about tomorrow as well in the context of the Annunciation to Joseph. The immediate future:
“Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to thee Mary thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth—the future of ninth month — a Son, and thou shalt call His Name, Jesus; and then the ultimate future: for He shall save his people from their sins.”
And yet all of these Propers are sung in the present, and each is in the context of the past of the Israelite people whose origin lies in the covenant between them and God. Our presence here today is the present and yet this present is in the midst of the past and the future. And it is precisely in this Mass in the present that the past and future become real.
We see so clearly now the disintegration of Christianity that has occurred in the past fifty years. And that applies to Catholicism as well. Now surely one of the chief reasons why this is happening is because more and more people who call themselves Christians in some way have no clue, have no real information about what the basics of the Christian faith are.
The anti-dogmatic principle of Protestantism that is, in the end, at the heart of what it means to be a religious American, that principle that resists any formulations of faith, any creed, to which one has an obligation to subscribe to, to give oneself to: this principle acting through time has destroyed the basic Christian understanding of Tradition and its binding force. Certainly Catholicism in this country has not been immune to this pernicious and potent solvent of Tradition.
And once you are cut yourself free, free in a negative sense, from the bonds of Tradition, bonds that are the source of true freedom, then you are free to float in a religion that is purely personal and idealistic, free from any bonds to human history, free from any bonds to a particular time and place.
Then Jesus becomes an idea instead of a person who lived at a particular time and in a particular place. Then you can do whatever you want with him. He becomes like a paper doll that you dress in any style you want of any time and place. He becomes one more teacher, one more guru, one more guy who talks about love and peace.
But the gospel tells us something very different: that irruption of the kingdom of God took place at a very particular time and place, about two thousand years ago in what is now called the Holy Land.
The past twenty-five years have seen a rise in those who call themselves atheists. When you read what they say, it is clear that they would be amazed to know that what we believe is that at a particular time and place God became man, the infinite become finite in the womb of a woman and was born as a man, a real man, and the finite death of the infinite God healed the horrible wound that lies at the heart of the physical and spiritual universe in which we live.
These self-styled atheists would not recognize this as the Christian faith. For they think that what Christianity is, is some sort of vague belief in a bearded old guy in the sky who issued orders on how to live according to his Ten Commandments and that this has nothing to do with this world and even less with reason itself.
That they are fools the psalmist tells us clearly: the fool says in his heart — there is no God. But their foolishness is mitigated by the fact that what passes for Christianity today is a shadow at best of the heart of the Christian faith who is Jesus Christ, the very heart of human history.
The grey fetid breath of secularism, this plague that threatens us so much more than any physical virus can, encourages us to leave the child-like faith that believes that ours is a historical religion that changed history and instead to enter into the Disney world of religion, where religion is something to make you feel good, a theme park to satisfy all needs and wants and delights —as long as it is not real.
It is precisely this Mass, the Mass of Tradition, that is the antidote to the grave affliction that is besetting the Catholic Church today. For it is only within the bonds of Catholic Tradition that the past, the present and the future make ultimate sense.
It is here at this Mass that is the heart of the Tradition of the Church where the past and the future, where time and eternity intersect at this time and at this place as the Holy Sacrifice of the Cross is offered at this intersection point of past, present and future. And for this and for all the blessings this Mass brings to the people of St Mary’s: we say: Deo gratias.
Now to another Christmas sermon that I had never heard about before - and yet, it is by the Doctor Seraphicus, St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. I wonder if Joseph Ratzinger ever annotated this sermon, which was unearthed by the ultra-traditionalist site TRADITION IN ACTION, which translated it to English from the original Latin - after some gay activists accused the site of falsely reporting that St. Bonaventure had claimed one of the miracles around the world that took place at the time Jesus was born was that 'all the sodomites of the whole world died, male and female...' So the appropriate volume of Bonaventure's OPERA OMNIA was brought out that contains the full text of the sermon (see above) and was translated by the TIA desk.
St. Bonaventure’s 22nd Sunday Sermon At Lyon
Courtesy of
"Bless, O my soul, the Lord who liberated Jerusalem, His city, from its many tribulations, He the Lord our God. Confess the Lord, O children of Israel, for He has shown His majesty to a sinful nation" (Tobias 13:19)
Moved by a great devotion of heart for today’s celebration, the soul of each one of the faithful should bless and confess God for His great works, exalting the men of Israel and the elect of Jerusalem, as seen in the 24 considerations of the meditation on today’s feast set forth briefly in the Gospel of Christmas Eve. Four considerations are on God the Father, four on God the Son, four on the Blessed Mother, four on Joseph, four on the Shepherds and four on the Angels.
We should consider and bless God the Father for His most admirable liberality in sending His Son to take flesh and be born; and praise His fidelity for fulfilling His promise in the due time, His ineffable charity because He had compassion on us and was thus pleased to help us, and His eternal goodness because He wanted to make himself known to us in this way.
Regarding the Son being born, we should consider and bless His admirable and dignifiedcbenignity, imitate His promptitude in obeying the Father and His pity and incredible clemency toward us, and appreciate His submissive poverty, humility and simplicity.
As for the Mother who gave birth, we should consider and bless her immaculate virginity and glorious fecundity, the singularity of her delivery and the generosity of her fortunate and joyful childbirth.
On the part of Joseph, we should consider and bless his profound reverence, enormous justice, dedicated compliance and indefectible charity.
On the part of the Shepherds, we should consider and bless their holy simplicity, pious joyfulness, praiseful solicitude and their expanding faith and devotion.
On the part of the Angels, we should consider and bless the clarity of their omnipresent grandeur, the intimacy of their new tenderness, the learnedness of their preaching and thepurity and sublimity of their new praises.
In all these meditations our souls should bless God, on this day.
On this day, He liberated His city showing His majesty to a sinful nation, not only by sending His Son to be born, but by bedecking and adorning the day, hour and time of His Nativity with miracles.
The miracles shown to the sinful nation at the time of the Nativity of Christ are these, according to various histories.
First, a fulgent star appeared in the sky in parts of the East, which displayed the form of a most pure Infant, and over it was a shining cross to signify that He who was born would spread His doctrine, life and death throughout the whole world.
Second, in the middle of the day, from the Capitoline Hill in Rome, a golden circle that appeared near the sun was seen – [also] by the Emperor and the Sibyl – and in it was a most pure Virgin giving birth to an Infant, signifying that He who was born was the Monarch of the world and came to demonstrate the splendor of the paternal glory and figure of His substance.
Third, the temple of peace in Rome fell to the ground. When it was built, the devils were asked how long it would last, and they responded that it would stand until a Virgin gave birth to a Son, as a sign that He who was born would destroy the works and practices of vanity.
Fourth, in Rome a large gush of oil sprung up from the ground and flowed into the Tiber, to show that a source of piety and mercy had been born.
Fifth, on the night of the Nativity, the vinae Engaddi, from which perfume is made, sprouted, flourished, extended its branches and produced its scented liquid, to show that He who was born would make the spiritual world flourish, grow and give fruits, and that its fragrance would attract the whole world.
Sixth, 30,000 criminals were killed by the Emperor, to show that He who was born would subject the whole world by His Faith and that the rebels would be lost in Hell.
Seventh, all the sodomites in the whole world died, both male and female, according to Jerome commenting on the Psalm: "The light was born for the just, which shows that He who was born came to reform nature and to promote chastity".
Eighth, brute animals spoke in Judea, among them, two oxen, to make us understand that He who was born would transform the most bestial men into rational persons.
Ninth, all the idols of Egypt were destroyed when the Virgin gave birth; according to Jeremiah that sign was given to the Egyptians to make them understand that He who was born was the true God and the only One worthy of adoration with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Tenth, when the Infant was lying in the Manger, the ox and donkey knelt before Him, as if they had reason, and adored Him, which makes us understand that He who was born would call both the Jews and the Gentiles to His religion.
Eleventh, the whole world was in peace as described, to show that He who was born would love and promote universal peace and that His elect would enjoy eternal peace.
Twelfth, in the East three suns appeared in the sky, which progressively merged into a single celestial body to show that by the birth of Christ the world would be informed of the Triune God, and that Divinity, spirit and flesh had been united in one Person.
About all these things, our souls should bless God and venerate Him because He liberated us and His majesty was shown to us, a sinful nation.
The Lord Jesus was born in the 5,199th year after the constitution of the world, after the constitution of the 750 gens of the City [of Rome], in the year of the 194th Olympics, in the 42nd year of Emperor Octavianus Augustus, in the 39th year of the reign of Herod of Ascalon in Judea, on the 8th day of the Kalendas of January, having Cyrenius as governor of Syria.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/12/2017 03:02] |