KIERNAN: Christmas and the cross

I hope and pray that you had a blessed Advent and Christmas season. Over the past few weeks, we have spent time preparing our homes with decorations, exchanging gifts with loved ones, perhaps making a New Year’s resolution, and spiritually developing our hearts for the coming of the Lord. As the season passes, the tree is put away, the candles of the Advent wreath extinguished, and the Christmas songs fade from the radio — we ask the questions, “What now? Where do we go from here?”

We can also consider this from a spiritual standpoint. In asking this in my own prayer, the Lord placed on my heart the connection between Christmas and Easter. As Catholics, we believe that Easter is the most important feast in the life of the Church. This is because of the astounding power and gift of the resurrection. Yet, there is no cross without Christmas. Obviously, God could have chosen any method He desired to redeem the world, but in the Christian faith story, the journey to the cross begins with the incarnation at Christmas. Without Jesus becoming human, the cross would have no effect. What have we been celebrating at Christmas? The fact that Jesus came to earth to teach us about God, to be a model for us to follow, to establish a Church for us to access Him and ultimately to offer His life on the cross for our salvation.

This connection between Christmas and the cross is found in our Liturgy as well. There is a practice that during the Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, after the proclamation of the Gospel a deacon or cantor announces from the ambo all the moveable feasts for the upcoming year. As the Christmas season comes to its conclusion, the Church, in her wisdom, helps us to orient ourselves to what is coming next. In doing so, we are urged not to lose momentum but to purposefully ensure our continued faith growth. The cantor or deacon shares the date of Ash Wednesday, Easter, the feast of the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi and the first Sunday of Advent.

As Catholics, we are liturgical people, guided by our celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice in such a way that it helps us to enter the mystery that is the very heart of God. There is a principle in theology called anamnesis, which is a type of ritual memory that does not merely recall something that has happened but does so in a way that a past event becomes present here and now. From this perspective, we hear the words of consecration as if we are sitting at the table during the Last Supper, watching Jesus offer the bread and wine that have become His body and blood.

Following this principle, we also can enter into the story unfolding throughout the year — gazing upon the newborn baby Jesus in the manger, hearing the beatitudes during the Sermon on the Mount, sitting with the Lord during His agony, standing at the foot of the cross as He breathes His last, and discovering the empty tomb when He is raised from the dead.

During this new calendar year, I invite you to reflect on the joy we have received this Christmas. What difference does this make in your life? I pray this authentic joy that comes with the birth of the Savior may reach its full effect by recognizing its place in the larger story of faith as we move from Christmas to the cross and everything in between. †

Matt Kiernan is an associate director for Sacrament Preparation in the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.

(Photo by James Ramos/Herald)