psalm 96: sing a new song. christmas in nocte

For the past several days, since I have been celebrating masses in different places and to different congregations, I find it necessary to explain time and again why I focus my reflections on the responsorial psalm.  It started as a way of reminding my superiors that I have been too long already in my present assignment in the seminary, I have finished reflecting on the gospels, and on the first and second readings of the mass.  Now I am reflecting on the responsorial psalm.  Should you hear me preaching the alleluia verse in the future, that's already a sign that things are becoming too much already.

This is the 3^rd time I am celebrating Christmas mass in Carmel, and considering the other masses I have said here in all these years I would have wanted to greet the sisters at the beginning of the mass, I am tired of you, and they would have greeted me back, and also with you.  And we could tell the bishop that our feelings are mutual.  Of course, this is not true, at least with Carmel.  If there is one thing that glues my relationship with Carmel it is because Carmel makes the best bandi in the world – yes you heard me right, my joys in life are simple, they make the best bandi, nothings compares not even San Joaquin or even Antique, and it is worth the arthritis that usually follows.

Today on the eve of Christmas Psalm 96 is proclaimed to us.  The first line of this psalm tells us to "sing a new song to the Lord."  We usually like old songs, more so on Christmas.  It may be a new recording, a new rendition, a new interpretation, it can be may be sung by Nat King Cole, the Carpenters, or Rod Stewart, Lea Salonga, Joemarie Chan or Michael Buble for as long as they sing the old songs. 

But no, said the psalm, sing a new song.  But why should we sing a new song?  This invitation to sing a new song can only be understood in the context of the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 43 where God says, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing." I am about to do a new thing - the old is gone and the new is here, thus there is a need to sing a new song.

This Christmas we may have received so many new things – new clothes, new toys, new shoes and bags, new gadgets.  I hope this is not the only newness which Christmas brings to each one of us.  And I also hope these are not our only sources of happiness.   So, what new thing is the Lord doing for you this Christmas?  Or better still what new things would you allow the Lord to do for you this Christmas? 

Allow me to suggest several things.  This may be late for Christmas, nevertheless whatever I say here cannot be bought in stores anyway or wrapped in gift wrappers. 

First, there are so many two things you cannot do at the same time.  One of these is to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.  Or it can be the other way around, you cannot be simultaneously ungrateful and happy at the same time.  My point is gratefulness and happiness go together.  Christmas is a reminder that no one of us has a reason to unhappy.  We are blessed.  We are loved. We are redeemed.  A savior child is born to us, a son is given us.  We have our faith. We may not be at the pink of health but we are alive.  We have each other, we have a family.  I have the best bandi in the world.  Who cannot be happy with so many affirmations of love around us.  But many times, we forget our blessings and we become unhappy.  So, let us not end this day without saying thank you to God and thank you to each other. Be grateful and you will be happy.

Second, many times we place our self-worth on what we possess, on what we can do, on what we can afford, on what we have accumulated.  And we come to believe that these are the things that make us greater and better than the rest.  And many times, too, we compare ourselves with others.  I become unhappy when the other has more of what I want to have, or more than what I have received.  More defines us, only to discover that having and wanting more is never enough and is never really satiated. 

But Christmas teaches us differently.  It changes the way we look at ourselves and others.  Christmas tells us that all of us have worth.  The shepherds were the first recipients of the good news not because they were worthy but because they are loved even while they were yet unlovable.  This is our dignity before God and others, not because of what we have, not because of what we can do, not because of our social status or rank, not even because of the good that we do, but because God came to dwell in ordinary human flesh and in becoming like us he made our bodies holy, whether we are rich or poor, saint or sinner, embracing every man, woman or child, and thus each one deserving honor, respect, and love.  In God you don't have to be beautiful in order to be loved, you don't even have to be good.

Third, Christmas also reminds us that the former things have come to pass, we have become a new people, we have become a new creation, a new nation "for the Lord comes to rule the earth.  He shall rule the world with justice."

In 1893 in the United States when a Labor Leader by the name of Samuel Gompers was asked, what does labor want, his answer was – "more schoolhouses and less jail cells, more books and less weapons, more learning and less vice, more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge."  I believe this is also the message of the psalm this Christmas – we need to recognize that the rule and the justice of God has come and we need to allow it to grow in our society, not to be stunted, not to backtrack or backpedal, but to allow it to grow little by little, inch by inch in our hearts and in our communities.

Today God has done something new, the old is gone, the new is here, there is a need to sing a new song.