The Gregorian Chant propers of the Christmas Midnight Mass compose one of the most beautiful liturgical-exegetical-dogmatic artworks that one can find in the Latin chant tradition.<\/p>\n
The Introit antiphon is<\/p>\n
Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te. (Ps 2:7)<\/em> \u2013 and there starts the misunderstanding. This verse is generally translated as \u201ctoday I have begotten you:\u201d a strictly male metaphor. But the Latin gignere<\/em> \u2013 as well as its Greek and Hebrew origins in the Bible \u2013 can mean either \u201cbeget someone\u201d or \u201cgive birth to someone;\u201d or both at the same time when it comes to metaphorical language. In the context of Christmas \u201cI have given birth to you\u201d makes more sense, because it is the birth of the Christ child that is celebrated. Fathering has its own solemnity on March 25.<\/p>\n It is a pity that Germanic languages do not offer a word that describes the father\u2019s part in the beginning of life as well as the mother\u2019s. We have to decide whether to focus a translation on the male or the female aspect, and on Christmas it is obvious that the maternal metaphor needs to be in the foreground.<\/p>\n At first sight the idea that a male (dominus)<\/em> gives birth might sound weird, but we use the same metaphor in the Creed:<\/p>\n \u201cI believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father<\/strong> before all ages.\u201d<\/p>\n The next Gregorian chant in the Midnight Mass is the Gradual:<\/p>\n Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae: in splendoribus sanctorum, et utero ante luciferum genui te. (Ps 110(109):3)<\/em><\/p>\n Again genui te,<\/em> \u201cI have given birth to you.\u201d The female metaphor is much more obvious, as the birth happens ex utero,<\/em> \u201cfrom the uterus.\u201d But the temporal marker is different: not \u201ctoday,\u201d but ante luciferum,<\/em> \u201cbefore the morning star.\u201d As a metaphor that does not necessarily mean \u201cvery early in the morning,\u201d but rather \u201cbefore all Creation\u201d (cf. Gen 1:1\u20135 and 14\u201319). The Christian liturgy establishes a tie between the Creed (\u201cborn of the Father before all ages\u201d) and the liturgical use of the Old Testament psalm (\u201cI have given birth to you before all Creation\u201d).<\/p>\n When we combine both verses from Introit and Gradual, we are confronted with a theological mystery: I have given birth to you \u201ctoday\u201d and<\/strong> \u201cbefore all Creation!\u201d<\/p>\n This mystery is ping-pong-wisely continued in two of the following chants of Midnight Mass. The verse of the Allelujah is again Ps 2:7: Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te,<\/em> and the Communion antiphon is again Ps 110(109):3: In splendoribus sanctorum, ex utero ante luciferum genui te.<\/em><\/p>\n I tend to say that this liturgical play with two verses from the Old Testament expresses the entire theology of Christmas: In the birth of Christ, in the epiphany of God among humans in time and space, the terrestrial and the celestial, temporality and eternity are brought together and reconciled to each other. Amidst perishable history, eternal divinity is present. The message of Christmas is: You need not despair of your fleetingness. All fleetingness is dignified. Every single moment bears a signature of eternity, because God himself did not hesitate to be part of the perishable world. The hodie<\/em> (\u201ctoday\u201d) of the birth of Christ that tears down the wall to eternity is our own hodie:<\/em> Here and now our own existence is dignified, because there is no insurmountable border between Heaven and Earth anymore. Christmas is the celebration of the unity of Heaven and Earth.<\/p>\n Does this sound a bit too lofty? Well, not for the fifth chant of the Midnight Mass, the Offertory:<\/p>\n Laetentur caeli,<\/strong> et exsultet terra<\/strong> ante faciem Domini: quoniam venit. (Ps 96(95):11 and 13)<\/em> Leo the Great said in one of his Christmas homilies: \u201cChristian, remember your dignity, as you share in God\u2019s divine nature.\u201d Christmas celebrates what the Eastern tradition calls theosis:<\/em> divinization. Hopefully not in arrogance or presumption \u2013 as it happened and still happens among Christians \u2013, but in thankfulness for God\u2019s maternal grace which alone has the power to overcome any fleetingness and fulfill it with heavenly joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Proper Chants of the Christmas Midnight Mass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":44588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3119,19,17,91,21],"tags":[562,3293,1085,612],"class_list":["post-44522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-mass","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-liturgical-year","category-music-chant","tag-christmas","tag-divinization","tag-gregorian-chant","tag-midnight-mass"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cThe Lord said to me: My son are you, today I…\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe heavens<\/strong> shall be glad, and the earth<\/strong> shall rejoice before the Lord, for he has come.\u201d<\/p>\n