Before hundreds of people of all ages who filled the pews on Christmas Eve in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., reminded the faithful that even after 2,000 years, the Christmas story “never gets old.”
To see more photos, click here.
Though each recounting of the story features the same characters, stable, angels, shepherds and star year after year, “You would think Christians would get tired of telling the same story,” Bishop O’Connell said. “And, yet, they never have and I suspect they never will.”
The real miracle of the Christmas story, he said, “is news. “It is a story truly worth repeating.”
“That God became man, that the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us, had an impact on us; it has an effect upon us; it means something important and changes us. Humanity is different because Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace, the long awaited Messiah, the Eternal Savior, becomes one of us.”
The Christmas season and commemoration of the Birth of Christ commenced in a prayerful manner in the Diocese’s Mother Church, which was decorated with lit Christmas trees, vibrant poinsettias and other greens, as Bishop O’Connell joined the more than 600 on hand for the celebration of the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass. Bishop O’Connell was principal celebrant and homilist of the bilingual Mass in English and Spanish.
Msgr. Joseph Roldan, Cathedral rector, and Father Joel Wilson, a priest of the Diocese who currently serves on the faculty of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, Pa., concelebrated. Father Michael Wallack, episcopal secretary to Bishop O’Connell, served as master of ceremonies along with Julio Alvarez, director of religious education in the Cathedral, and 17 of the Cathedral’s “Guardians of the Altar” were on hand to serve in various capacities during the Mass. The Guardians of the Altar are a group of high school-aged boys who are specially trained to serve during Masses celebrated by the Bishop as well as other special services in the Cathedral.
Before the start of Mass, all eyes were fixed on the center aisle as Bishop O’Connell carried a statue of the Infant Jesus to the large Nativity scene prominently situated on a side aisle. After placing the Infant in the crib, the Bishop then blessed the manger.
In his homily, which he preached from the ambo, the Bishop reflected on how as children the attention to the Christmas story became easily sidetracked by lights and presents and Santa.
“But as we grew and matured, we realized there was more to the story than those things, as beautiful and joyful as they are!”
Delving more deeply on the Birth of Jesus, the Bishop highlighted points in each of the Readings and Psalm proclaimed that evening. He told of how the Prophet Isaiah announced, in the First Reading, that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…for a child is born to us, a son is given us…His dominion is vast and forever peaceful.”
The chanted Psalm was “Today is born a Savior, Christ the Lord,” and the Letter to Titus in the Second Reading “reminds us on this Christmas night that the ‘grace of God has appeared, saving all … The appearance of the glory of our great God Jesus Christ who gave himself to deliver us!” Bishop O’Connell said.
“Take all of those scriptural sound bites as context, as background, as interpretation and we can understand the ancient Christmas story — why we tell it over and over again, why we celebrate the events of today’s Gospel of St. Luke as though they just happened: new, fresh, energizing, uplifting, filled with joy.”
Bishop O’Connell exhorted the congregation to remember how Christmas “is an invitation to us and to all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, to let the mystery in, to let it warm our hearts and make them feel new, to let it influence our way of looking at the world he came to save, to give ‘glory to God’ as we embrace on another in love, in compassion, in forgiveness, in mercy.”
“As Christ came to give himself fully to us, let us who tell the story again, make of ourselves a Christmas gift of love and kindness to one another,” Bishop O’Connell said, who then concluded his homily with a heartfelt, “Merry Christmas.”