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Letters Christmas Titus 3:4-7 |
The Christmas Mass at dawn is called the Shepherds’ Mass. At the midnight Mass the gospel (Lk. 2.1-14) described the circumstances of the birth of Jesus and told us how the angel appeared to the shepherds. The angel announced to them that a savior had been born for them, and that the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger would be a sign for them. Now, at the dawn Mass, we see the shepherds hurrying to Bethlehem and finding exactly what the angel had foretold. This child, then, must be the savior!
Our apostolic reading is taken from the letter to Titus. This brief letter may have been written late in Paul’s career, or even by one of his followers. It is addressed to Titus, who had been one of Paul’s traveling companions earlier on. The letter to Titus is read in the Sunday liturgy only during Christmas time, i.e., at the midnight Mass and the dawn Mass for Christmas day, and on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (in year C) at the very end of the liturgical Christmas season.
These readings from Titus seem to have been chosen because they have to do with salvation and help us understand what it means to say that Jesus is our savior.
In ordinary language, "saving" has two main meanings. It means to rescue from danger or harm. "Saved by the bell!" It also means to put something aside, to preserve it. It’s the opposite of throwing away. "Don’t throw that away. It’s worth saving." The criterion for saving or throwing away is value. We save what is worth something to us. We throw away what is not.
When we say that Jesus has saved us, therefore, we mean two related things. We mean that Jesus has rescued us from danger, from the danger of the human sinfulness that is so pervasive and that could lead us to a wasted life that is little better than death. We also mean that Jesus gives our lives a special worth or value, that He makes us worth bothering about, worth preserving, that He makes us precious to God in a way that we would not be if He had not brought us salvation.
Our salvation consists in the fact that we are made over by Jesus into participants in His life. We are no longer mere human creatures, members of an historically sinful race, a race hostile to God. We are now extensions of the life of the God-man Jesus who modeled what human existence was meant to be and who thus lifted human existence to a whole new level of meaning and worth. We are precious to our heavenly Father because we are part of the life of His only Son. Salvation makes us sharers in the innermost life of God.
This is what our live letter for today is about. Paul reminds Titus that, out of His own love and kindness, God decided to save us, to deliver us from ultimate harm and to make us precious enough to be His forever. The fulfillment of His plan began when Jesus appeared. It wasn’t because we had earned His attention that He decided to make something out of us, but just because He is merciful. His plan works through baptism and through the Holy Spirit that our savior Jesus offers us. He re-creates us so that we are holy by sharing His own life ("justified by his grace"). Because we are holy as He is holy, we have a claim (as "heirs in hope") on eternal life with Him, with the Father, with the Holy Spirit.
Today we celebrate the birth of our savior. Through the human life that began at Jesus’ birth, He offers us ultimate safety. Sinfulness cannot have the last word in our lives as long as we are in touch with Him. Nothing can do us ultimate harm. Even the worst tragedies that can befall us in this earthly realm are secondary and subordinate to His love for us.
Through the human life that began at Jesus’ birth, He offers us worth and value. He makes us worth preserving. Even the most insignificant of us has a mission that has eternal implications. Our life is no longer our life, but His life, too, a life that God meant to extend to every place and time through the collaboration of all those who would accept Jesus in faith. God will never throw us away because we are as precious to Him as His own Son. He has determined to save us.
And it’s all free. We don’t have to achieve salvation. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to make ourselves worthy of it. In fact, what our savior offers us is so far above our human efforts that any idea of winning it by our own efforts is absurd if not downright blasphemous. Yes, we have to respond to Jesus’ offer of salvation. We have to be willing to accept what He wants to give us and what He wants us to be. But the salvation that He gives us is ultimately His doing and not ours. It’s all from His graciousness. It’s all gift.
Jesus was the best Christmas gift that was ever given. And He is given to us.
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Conversation Questions:
How am I precious to God?
From what threats or dangers does salvation in Christ deliver me?
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