When Does Christmas Begin & End?

December 25th: The end of Christmas? 

Christmas, the second most important solemnity after Easter, may seem to end for some by the morning of December 26, with evergreens left on curbsides and broken tinsel dangling out of recycle bins. Others may think of the "holidays" [which means holy days] as Christmas day (Dec. 25) and New Year's Day (Jan. 1), with "after Christmas" sales packaged in between. But Christmas in the Catholic Church and many other Christian communities involves much more.  The ancient celebration of Christ's nativity (and His other manifestations) begins as a special season on December 25th in the Gregorian calendar and lasts more than just a day or a week, actually climaxing at Epiphany on January 6th. 

If you had already guessed the real number at twelve days (the song might be stuck in your head now), you're pretty much on the right track; after all, Christmas break is at least two weeks, right?  That custom came from Catholic practice.  But although twelve days still encompasses the core ancient feasts of the season for most Christians, Christmas actually ends, depending on the year, anywhere between Jan. 8 and Jan. 13, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, at least in the current ordinary form of the Roman rite (so there could be as many as 20 days, see chart at the bottom).

The Vatican's Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar explains the time span of the entire season common to the West:

Christmas Time runs from First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Nativity of the Lord [Dec. 24th] up to and including the Sunday after Epiphany or after 6 January." GNLY 33  

Okay, so Christmas doesn't end Dec. 25 or Jan. 6. So what?  Why celebrate it more than a day anyway, regardless of when it begins?  Well, for one thing most modern cultures understand that birthdays are a celebration of life and of the gift of a unique human person for a family.  And even though birthdays were not commemorated quite the same way everywhere in ancient times, or even remembered in some near eastern cultures even today, the nativities of important figures such as leaders and prophets (Gen. 21:1-7; Luke 1:14) and kings were joyfully noted for the record.  The most important birthday of course belongs to the supreme priest, prophet, and king -- Jesus Christ, whose entrance into the world split time into two periods, everything prior to his coming and every year afterward (B.C. & A.D).  We sometimes joke about celebrating a birthday week (or month), but the Church in her wisdom was already on to this centuries ago when by late antiquity, she set apart two to three weeks for celebrating Christ's birth (evidence traces to the second century for a single day celebration), and measured all time by this event. 

It's that important because it's about our salvation:  Christ, who Himself being incarnate of a virgin yet with no earthly biological father, is the new creation who began in this world in a unique way, as simultaneously the Son of Man and eternal Son of God - created as a human and yet uncreated in his divinity.  He is the branch shot forth from the shoot (Mary) to become for us the Tree of Life again, rooting us in God's family. As the new Adam, He reshapes and renews human persons to grow to be what He meant each to be, resembling God in Christ's holy image and likeness.  The detailed origin and evolution of Christmas as a liturgical season is a long story though, not meant to be covered here.  But we can at least look at a snapshot of Christmastide to get an idea of the basic purpose and design of the season as the Church practices it today.  

Why a Season?

In short, the structure and character of Christmastide gradually emerged to honor Emmanuel (as the angels, Holy Family, shepherds, and Magi first did) and serve as a happy proclamation about the historical truth of the Incarnation, that 1) God assumed human flesh from the Virgin Mary and became fully man, manifesting himself as Messiah and Lord, without ceasing to be fully God, and that 2) He came to unite Himself to us in order to redeem us in His holy image and grant each person, by grace, a share His divine Sonship, becoming glorified children of the Father.  So many heresies in early church history denied some aspect of the Incarnation, some asserting that Jesus was more human than divine or more divine than human, or that he was two persons instead of one divine person, and so on.  And even when anti-Catholic errors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (hardline Calvinism) tried to suppress Christmas as a feast, such efforts could not succeed for long. 

It is through the splendor and joy of liturgy, prayer, art, and festivity, that Christmas became a clear proclamation of the Gospel truth about who Jesus really is and that He alone is the bridge between man and God. Over time, the various Biblical mysteries about Christ's entrance into the world --  His birth, the maternity of Mary, the Holy Family's exile and humble existence, the persecution of the Innocents, the adoration of the shepherds and Magi, the circumcision and baptism of Jesus -- expanded over the course of days to form a full Christmas season with each feast highlighting a different aspect of God's coming in the flesh. 

On December 11th, 1925, Pope Pius XI explained the importance of such annual feasts: 

For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life. QUAS PRIMAS #21 

Even the word Christmas [an Old English portemanteau meaning the "Mass of Christ"] highlights what the Christmas season is all about, since it is through the liturgical feasts that we relive, in a supernatural way, the rhythm of Christ's earthly life, and in worship and Holy Communion that we encounter Christ in a profound, tangible way; Christ, made little as our food (he was placed in a manger after all), unites us to the mysteries of his life and our inheritance. Thus, the joy-filled proclamation of the angels and saints on Christmas day spills over throughout the centuries and becomes our own song.  

The First Part of Christmas: The Octave

Musicians know that octaves are scales containing eight notes, beginning and ending with the same note, just at different pitches (e.g. - C1 to C2).  In a like manner, Jewish octaves of the Old Testament, a time of celebration and rest over eight days, served as sacred time "scales" for specific feasts (Lev. 23:36; Num. 29: 35; 2 Chron. 7:8-9; 2 Macc. 10:6).  Jews today still keep the custom (e.g. - Hanukah is eight days), and early Christians incorporated the practice into their worship as well.  The number eight in Judeo-Christian theology has always signified a new beginning (1 Pet. 3:20-21), the eternal spilling into the created order; hence, this is the reason why early Christians called Sunday the eighth day and church vessels, such as Baptismal fonts, are often octagonal shaped. Octaves in the Church calendar still serve as bookends for one complete sabbath, a time to delight and rest in the glory of a God who accompanies his people:

The celebration of Easter and Christmas, the two greatest solemnities, continues for eight days, with each octave governed by its own rules. GNLY 12

Each day of first eight days of the Christmas season, Dec. 25 - Jan. 1, is considered part of one "scale", one supreme celebration, a prolongation of Nativity joy in the week’s liturgy (called an Afterfeast in the East).  The Daily Office (liturgical prayer) of December 25 is repeated for each day of the octave, emphasizing the ongoing celebration of Christmas with full glory, music, prayer, and song.

The following outline below explains the specific days in the octave and will follow with details about the longer Christmas season as celebrated in the Roman rite.  Some Eastern Catholic commemorations, which differ slightly and trace back to older customs, are noted too.

December 25th 

The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh, who is the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The second divine Person of the Holy Trinity assumed human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became fully man without ceasing to be God.  His humble birth serves as the turning point of history, where God comes to meet man face-to-face and inaugurate the new creation.  Christ's birthday signifies eternal gifts for us. 

"For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich..."- 2 Corinthians 8:9

The remaining days of the octave include saints, mostly martyrs ("witnesses"), who are called "Companions of Christ" [companion meaning literally to share "bread with"].  The martyrs shared in Christ's passion and reflect the light of Jesus into the dark world through their uncompromising love for Christ and his Church.

December 26th 

Roman: The second day within the octave is the feast of St. Stephen, a deacon and the first martyr after Pentecost.  In Jerusalem, he proclaimed how all the events of salvation history and all the prophets confirmed Jesus as the true Messiah, but he was stoned to death at the behest of the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:59).  Stephen, whose name means "crown", immediately received the ultimate gift, the crown of glory and the beatific vision (Acts 7:54-56). St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified him as a martyr in both "will and deed", and in the United Kingdom his feast is also known as Boxing Day, a time when items for the poor are "boxed" up and donated (deacons took care of the poor in the Bible).  

Eastern Catholic: Dec. 26 is commemorated as the Synaxis or Praises to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Byzantine and Syriac churches, similar to the Roman feast of Mary, Mother of God on Jan. 1st. 

December 27th 

Roman: Third day within the octave. Feast of St. John the Evangelist. St. Bernard identifies St. John as a martyr in "will but not in deed", since his suffering and exile to Patmos was a "white martyrdom", without the shedding of blood.  John's gospel, written and published in the latter half of the first century, is a profound insight into the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation, the Word made flesh, and our participation in Trinitarian communion. John also identifies Christ as the Light who came to scatter the darkness (John 1:1-5; 1 John 2:8), the Bread of Life (John 6), and the Life made visible in human form (1 John 1:1-2).  With John's natural death around 100 A.D., public revelation (new doctrines revealed by Christ) comes to a close. 

Eastern Catholic: Dec. 27 is the feast of St. Stephen, proto-martyr. 

December 28th 

Roman: Fourth day within the octave. It commemorates the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, the first in the gospels to share in Christ’s persecution at the hands of a fallen, despotic world. St. Bernard identifies these little children as martyrs in "deed but not will". In this part of the Christmas narrative, the child Jesus is portrayed as a new Moses, identified with the oppressed yet saved by His family and hidden in Egypt, so that one day, He could return to deliver His people from evil (see CCC 530). 

Eastern Catholic:  In the Maronite tradition, Dec. 28 is commemorated as the Adoration of Magi.  In Byzantine Catholic tradition, the day commemorates the 20,000 martyrs of Nicomedia, Christians who were burned inside their church on Christmas day. 

December 29th 

Roman: Fifth day within the octave. Feast of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury, the English bishop and martyr whose share in the sacrifice of Christ through martyrdom on this date connects him as another close companion of the Savior.

Eastern Catholic: Dec. 29 is the Flight to Egypt and Holy Innocents. 

December 30th 

Roman: Sixth day within the octave.  The Feast of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) is normally celebrated Sunday within the octave, or December 30 if there is no Sunday.  As first-born of a new creation, the Son of God humbled himself to share in our human family and experience, gifting himself with the love and care of a particular human mother and particular human foster-father.  In doing so Jesus perfects and sets apart marriage and family as the channel through which the divine and human find mutual company, a domestic church on pilgrimage towards beatitude. 

Eastern Catholic: Maronites commemorate Dec. 30 as the Return from Egypt to Nazareth, essentially a celebration of the Holy Family.  Byzantine Catholics commemorate Sts. David, Joseph the Betrothed, and James the Kinsman the Sunday after the Nativity and on Dec. 30, they commemorate St. Anysia. 

December 31st 

Roman: Seventh day within the octave and memorial of Pope St. Sylvester I.  Sylvester was the pope who ratified the Creed of Nicaea in 325 A.D. which condemned the Arian heresy that claimed the Son of God was a spiritual creature and not equal to God the Father (i.e. - not God and not Savior).  Thus, in the Creed we confess the fundamental Christmas truth about who Jesus is every Sunday: 

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

Eastern Catholic: For Maronites, Dec. 31 is listed in honor of the Word Made Flesh. 

January 1st

Roman: Octave of Christmas and Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  A holy day of obligation in most of the Catholic world, it serves as another crescendo for worship, honoring the Motherhood of Mary and the induction of Christ into the Hebrew Covenant with his circumcision and conferral of his saving name. This Latin feast of Mary is perhaps the oldest Roman Marian feast and her ancient Greek title Theotokos (God-bearer) teaches us the truth about her son, Jesus Christ: the human being she gave birth to was truly a divine person, therefore Mary can be called "Mother of God" (see Luke 1:43).

Eastern Catholic: The circumcision of Christ on the eighth day after his birth and St. Basil the Great are commemorated Jan. 1.  Maronites also commemorate the Finding of the Lord in the Temple the Sunday after New Year's Day. 

The Rest of Christmastide

January 2nd 

Roman: The ninth day of Christmas and the memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen. These Cappadocian fathers of the East defended the Trinity and the divinity and humanity of Jesus during the Arian heresy of the fourth century. 

Eastern Catholic: Maronites highlight the Presentation of Jesus forty days after his birth.

January 3rd

Roman: Tenth day of Christmas.  Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus. 

January 4th

Roman (U.S.): Eleventh day of Christmas. Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. 

January 5th

Roman (U.S.): Twelfth day of Christmas and twelfth night (vigil of the Epiphany). Memorial of St. John Neumann.  Eastern: St. Paul the Hermit. 

January 6th

Roman: Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, another major feast of the Christmas season.  In fact, Jan. 6 was the original date on which the Nativity of the Lord and all of the mysteries of his childhood plus his Baptism were celebrated in the East.  Epiphany in Western tradition now commemorates the manifestation of the Christ child to the Magi (the Gentiles) and is sometimes called Three Kings Day in different cultures.  In most of the U.S., Epiphany is transferred to the nearest Sunday between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8.  

Eastern Catholic: Called Theophany in the East, Epiphany retains the original emphasis on the Lord's baptism as a manifestation of Jesus as Son of God and Messiah.  At Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by St. John the Forerunner, the Trinity is manifested, the Sacrament of Baptism is foreshadowed, Christ is proclaimed Son of the Father, and Jesus begins his public mission of salvation.  Thus, the blessing of holy water and administration of Baptism is still common in many Eastern Catholic and Orthodox circles in January.  Armenians still celebrate Jan. 6th as the day of the Nativity. 

January 7th 

Roman: Thirteenth day of Christmas. Memorial of St. Raymond of Penafort. 

Eastern Catholic: Synaxis or Praises to St. John the Forerunner.  Many Eastern Orthodox countries which follow the old Julian calendar celebrate the Nativity today. 

January 8th - January 13th

Roman: Days within the Christmas week after Epiphany. For the Roman rite, the Baptism of the Lord is not celebrated Jan. 6 but is commemorated the Sunday after Epiphany or after January 6 if no Sunday (thus Christmas can end at 15 days or extend as much as 20 days).  With the Baptism of Jesus, Christmas comes to an official end in the Roman rite (prior to the 1955 revision of the general Roman calendar, Epiphany had its own octave starting Jan. 6, the Magi, and always came to an end on the fixed date of Jan. 13th, the Baptism of the Lord).  Although the season after Christmas is today called "Ordinary time" (counted time) in the Roman rite, it was once called the season after Epiphany and additional Sundays in January still commemorate other Epiphany moments such as Christ's first public miracle at the wedding feast of Cana.  

Eastern Catholic: After January 6, the East enters into the season of Epiphany which lasts until the few preparation Sundays before Great Lent. 

February 2nd 

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus. Forty days after His birth, Jesus was presented in the Temple by his mother -- a picture of the new Ark of the Covenant (Mary) carrying the presence of God (Jesus) back to the Holy of Holies.  The elder Simeon declares Christ a light to the Gentiles (Lk. 2:32); hence, the custom of blessing candles for the church year gives this day its Old English name: Candlemas.  Since February 2 marks the halfway point of winter, the feast reminds the faithful once again that the Christ Child is the light who scatters the darkness.  The day is not part of the Christmas season proper (it was unofficially the final Christmas holiday prior to 1955), but it is another highlight of Epiphany related feasts.  For the East, the Presentation is, with Christmas Day and Theophany, one of the twelve great feasts of the ancient calendar.  Some Catholics leave manger scenes, trees, or lights up until this date.  The Vatican has been known to do so in some years. 

Christmas is Eternal 

The fact that Christmas, as a liturgical season of worship and rest, is more than a day or even a week serves to remind the faithful that the reality of the Word made Flesh, who, out of supreme love for the world, humbled himself as a poor child to draw and elevate man into the splendor of divine life and love, is not a mystery which can be simply grasped in one, a thousand, or even ten thousand days; for Christmas (and its sister feast of the Annunciation nine months earlier on March 25) is how Eternity transformed time, the cosmos, and mankind forever.  So perhaps, instead of ditching the lights and tree a couple days after Dec. 25th, or taking apart our manger scenes, we can leave them up the full season to remind us of the great self-gift of Christ, the light who enlightens all men and whose tender mercy makes stony hearts cheerful and childlike before God again. 

The Catechism sums up the main message of Christmas: 

To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this "marvelous exchange": O marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity. - CCC 530

 

© Article, graphics, and video by Joe Aboumoussa

How Does the Nativity Reveal the Eucharist?

At Christmas time, nativity scenes based on the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke fill spaces in and around altars, churchyards, and homes to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas -- that the eternal, only-begotten Son of God humbled Himself to enter the human family, so that we, united to Him, could share, via the grace of the Holy Spirit, in His Divine Sonship, and be restored in His holy image and likeness as children reclaimed by His Eternal Father. 

The crib of Christ, depicted in art since ancient times, also points to many saving mysteries of the Lord’s life which would unfold later in His public mission.  In particular, the setting where Christ is born, a manger in a cave-stable in the town of Bethlehem points directly to the gift of the Eucharist (the word “Christmas” in Old English actually means the “Mass of Christ”, referring to the sacred act of worship where the faithful gather to encounter the Word of God manifest not only in the proclamation of Scripture but also physically and supernaturally in the Blessed Sacrament).   

Pope Francis, in his apostolic letter on the significance of the Nativity, highlights the connection between the Sacrifice of the Mass (especially the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist) and the first Nativity scene arranged by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 at a Christmas liturgy in Greccio, Italy: 

All those present experienced a new and indescribable joy in the presence of the Christmas scene. The priest then solemnly celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist. At Greccio there were no statues; the nativity scene was enacted and experienced by all who were present. ADMIRABILE SIGNUM [2]

Bethlehem: The Harvest Town

Bethlehem was the ancestral capital of the tribe of Judah and the birthplace of Jesse's youngest son, the shepherd boy David, who would be anointed there as God’s chosen ruler of all Israel. The Old Testament foretold that the promised Messiah, Jesus, the branch of Jesse and David's descendant, would be the chief Shepherd and King of Kings born in the same small city (Micah 5:2). 

Christ’s ancestor Ruth, David's great-grandmother, had first come to Bethlehem to escape famine and glean the abundant fields of wheat and vineyards. The entire region was called a Ephrathah (Hebrew: אֶפְרָת \ אֶפְרָתָה‎‎) meaning “fruitful”.  In old Hebrew, Bethlehem means “House of Bread”, in reference to its abundant grain production, and in Arabic “House of Flesh”, probably in reference to its rearing of sheep and lambs.

Shepherds there also tended sheep for wool production and provided Passover lambs for sacrifice in Jerusalem.  It is in this city that Christ is born of the Virgin Mary in a cave functioning as a stable for sheep and other animals gathered around a manger, a feeding trough (the word "manger", from Old French and Late Latin, means "to chew" and traces back to the Biblical Greek "phatne" or "stall for feeding" - see Luke 2:7,12,16. If you're familiar with the Italian command "Mangia!" or "Eat up!" you'll notice the same root).  Mary places her newborn son Jesus in this manger.  

A New House of Bread  

Why was Jesus born in a stable with animals in the first place? Because there was no room for him at the inn (Luke 2:7). Crowds descending on the city in response to Caesar Augustus' imperial decree for tribes to register (whether for a census or an act of allegiance) in their ancestral cities was the matter-of-fact reason, but the early Fathers understood that the Christ Child's rejection at the inn also signaled Israel's later rejection of the adult Messiah at Passover. It's also interesting to note that the Greek root (katalymati καταλύματι) commonly translated as “inn”  in the Christmas story is also the same word that refers to the Upper Room where Jesus celebrated his Last Passover with his apostles [the first Mass] (Luke 2:7; 22:12). His own tribe in his ancestral town prevented him from taking sanctuary, but he recreates a new holy house, beginning at the stable and finding fulfillment at the Lord's table in the guest room, where everyone is called to take shelter and find sustenance in the Lord's home. For thousands of years, Christians have gathered at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to offer the Divine Liturgy and adore the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist which is laid upon Greek and Latin altars standing over the very place where Jesus was first laid and adored in the feeding trough. But every Catholic church is a House of Bread where one may stop now to welcome and adore Christ in His sacramental presence, just as the Holy Family, shepherds, and others had done so very long ago. 

                             

A New Manna

Right after their stay in Bethlehem, the Holy Family flees to Egypt to escape King Herod's plan to eliminate the Messiah.  Some time later, Mary and Joseph come out of Egypt with the Christ Child alive and safe for the moment and return to Nazareth where their home becomes a temporary Holy of Holies, a domestic tabernacle where they commune with Jesus day to day. In this part of the Holy Family's life, the Church sees Jesus' sharing in the first exodus of his Hebrew people, who had entered Egypt in duress, been taken captive, yet exited victorious on pilgrimage back toward freedom in the Promised Land, feeding upon the first "bread from heaven", Manna, as they journeyed.  Likewise, this points to Christ our Passover, who grants us a participation in his humiliating death, so that we may escape its enslavement through in his victorious resurrection.  On the way towards heaven, the true Promised Land, the faithful are nourished by the new Manna, Christ in the Eucharist.  Jesus draws this parallel in John chapter 6, after he multiplied the loves of bread and fish for the crowds: 

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh...he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate [manna] and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:48-51, 54-58 RSVCE). 

The swaddled Christ was laid on both the wood of the manger & the wood of the cross (altars in a sense), and nestled in the cave of his birth and in His tomb, so that through his life, death, and resurrection, his own self-gift, he might communicate his abundant life to each of us, as our heavenly manna in the Holy Eucharist.  At Christmas, the icon of the Nativity should remind us of the Lord's Supper (Christ's Mass = Christmas), where sacrifice, communion, divine presence, and the joining of heaven and earth continues today.

                                 

Watch the three minute summary below. 

What Time Was Jesus Born?

The Bible does not make explicit the month, day, nor hour of Christ's birth (although there are Scriptural and historical clues which support the theory of December 25th being Christ's literal birth date and the Church Fathers were pretty unanimous about the year -- 2 or 3 B.C.  There wasn't a year 0).  But the gospel of Luke does record the general time of day; the host of angels appear to the shepherds who keep watch "at night" in order to announce to these pastors that the Messiah has been born "today" (Luke 2:8-12).  So it's no surprise why all of our representations of the Nativity in art, greeting cards, plays, and films show a late night / early morning birth of Christ under a peaceful, starry sky.  However, there is a clue in the Old Testament, which some early Christians used to pinpoint the hour of Jesus' birth more specifically. 

A Word to the Wise 

In the deuterocanonical book the Wisdom of Solomon 18:14-15 (a book of the Old Testament omitted from modern Protestant Bible canons but included in some earlier translations such as the KJV), we get the following description of an event from the exodus of the Hebrews: 

For when peaceful stillness encompassed everything

    and the night in its swift course was half spent,

Your all-powerful word from heaven’s royal throne

    leapt into the doomed land.

Literally, this passage describes the personification of God's "word", the destroying angel who came down at midnight to carry out the Lord's final judgement upon Egypt during the first Passover -- a time when the Lord vanquished the dominion of evil in the land and freed Israel from slavery to their corrupt masters.  This liberation was accomplished specifically through the Hebrews' shared meal of the lamb, whose blood on wooden doorposts served as a sign of life -- a "no" to local idolatry and chattel servitude and yes to trust in God's promise of deliverance (Ex. 12:13-17).  Afterwards, the Hebrews, strengthened by their ritual supper, were released by their captors to return back to freedom and life in the Promised Land.  

The Definitive Deliverer

The typological connection to Christ is clear.  Christ is the ultimate all-powerful Logos, the Word of the Father (Jn. 1:1), who leapt into our fallen world in order to destroy sin and deliver us from death through his own sacred Passover banquet, his sacrifice upon the wood of the Cross, and his resurrection from the tomb. 

Remember the time of the angel's "leap"?  It happened when "the night in its swift course was half-spent" (i.e. - midnight).  This cross-references other Old Testament passages which affirm that God delivered the final blow to the Egyptians (fallen world) and brought salvation to Israel at midnight: 

Moses then said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go forth through Egypt. (Ex. 11:4; cf. Ex. 12:29). 

In fact, when Jews today re-experience the exodus at their Seder meal, midnight serves as the deadline for eating the matzah, bitter herbs, and meat of the Passover.  One ancient hymn sung at the concluding rite of the Passover references midnight: 

“And so it was, at the half-point of the night; many miracles You wrought wondrously in the night, at the starts of the watches of this night.”

Similarly for Catholics, the new Passover of the Christian Triduum begins Holy Thursday evening, continues Good Friday, and culminates at the Easter vigil liturgy at dusk on Holy Saturday, which reigns in Easter Sunday's approach at midnight. 

What About Christmas?

Okay, so the connection of a midnight liberation at the first Passover connects with Christ's Paschal Mystery which saves everyone from sin and death, but that's the Triduum and Easter.  What does this all have to do with Christmas?

Notice the wording of Wisdom 18:15, "Your all powerful word from heaven's royal throne leapt into the doomed land". Although Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension make up the culmination of God's redemptive work, God's inauguration of the plan of salvation kicked off with the incarnation of Christ -- when the second divine Person assumed human flesh and became fully man in the womb of the virgin Mary.  This really happens shortly after the Annunciation (Gabriel's visit to Mary), which is celebrated March 25th.  Since the Church has always taught that human life begins at conception, this would be the moment God became man: body, blood, soul, divinity.  Count nine months forward, and you get Christ's birthday on December 25th, when the God-man finally greeted the world face-to-face.  The Lord "descended" into our world becoming a mortal human child without compromising his divinity, so that we united to him, our Passover, may ascend back with him to our homeland with the Father (literally in Greek kenosis: Christ "emptied Himself" κενόω (kenóō) Phil. 2:7, submitting his created human will to the one eternal divine will - cf. CCC 475).

Wisdom then foreshadows Christ, the Word of God, making his appearance among men as Savior at the midnight hour -- a time thought to be the darkest of the night, the night watch. Theologically, this makes sense.  Jesus, the Eternal Word, is the Light of World (Jn. 8:12) who shines and scatters the darkness (Jn. 1:5; Jn 3:19) and illuminates our path (Jn 1:9) to show us the way back to the Father: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and theWord was God. He was in the beginning with God;  all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn. 1:1-5). 

“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in the darkness” (Jn. 12:46).

Even Christ's late December birthday after the Winter solstice suggests this, since the days begin to lengthen, and sunlight gradually increases in the natural world.  The Church, united to Christ, becomes the light of the world, the city shining on a hill that cannot be hidden (Mt. 5:14), showing others the way to freedom in God's kingdom.  As the lamb's blood marked the homes of the elect at Passover, Christmas lights in a delightful way represent the light of Christ shining forth from every home, a domestic church (assembly). Midnight also provided a convenient and symbolic axis for the B.C / A.D. distinction introduced into the calendar in the sixth century, which calls to mind the eternal difference Christ's birth made in history.  All time hinges upon Him. 

Midnight Traditions

 

The Lord's midnight entrance also served as an inspiration for Christmas carols such as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", which is about the angels' announcement of Christ's birth. 

Another carol that takes its inspiration from Wisdom is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming": 

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!

Of Jesse's lineage coming, as men of old have sung.

It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,

When half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;

Mary we behold it, the Virgin Mother kind.

To show God's love aright, she bore to us a Savior,

When half spent was the night.

The belief in a midnight birth also gave rise to the tradition of inaugurating December 25th with Midnight Mass, where Christians join voices with the choirs of angels in proclaiming the birth of the Savior (the word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ", his passover celebration). 

The first recorded instance of a midnight liturgy is found in the chronicles of Egeria, a woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late fourth century to document holy sites.  While in Jerusalem, she celebrated with other Christians the Lord's birth and epiphany at midnight on January 6th.   Pope Sixtus III is said to have established the custom on December 25th, 430 A.D., for the Roman rite Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major (although some sources attribute the start of the custom to the seventh Bishop of Rome, Pope St. Telesphorus, c. 125-136 A.D.).  Later in history, the famous carol "Silent Night" was written by Father Joseph Mohr, specifically for its first performance at midnight Mass in 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria.  

Wisdom 18:14-15 also served as the Introit for the Sunday after Christmas; today it's heard on December 30 in the Church. Regardless of whether one believes Christ entered the world literally on midnight or not (it's not a binding dogma), the symbolic significance of this pious interpretation is clear: the awesome glory of God, hidden in the form of a weak baby, invaded the dark world at a definitive point in time to  shine forth divine light as a beacon for those seeking to find the way toward abundant life -- something Christmas always proclaims in splendor. 

If you had been afraid of shadows, you would have been born at noon. But you preferred the night. Lord, you were born in the middle of the night because midnight is pregnant with the dawn."  Dom Helmer Camara, "It's Midnight Lord".   

Watch the 1.4 minute video for a summary. 

© Joe Aboumoussa

Was St. John the Baptist Born Without Original Sin?

No Christian disputes the fact that St. John the Baptist, the forerunner and martyr who prepared the way for the Messiah, was a righteous man.  His cousin, Jesus himself proclaimed, "...among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Mt. 11:11).  In context, Jesus was defending John's character against those who found fault with the Baptist and accused him of being a false prophet.  Christ emphasized that among all the prophets of the Old Covenant who pointed to the Messiah, John was not only one of them but the greatest of them.  The Catechism summarizes the esteem with which the Church has always held St. John:

John the Baptist is "more than a prophet." In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets.... (CCC 719)

St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. "Prophet of the Most High", John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being "the friend of the bridegroom", whom he points out as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world".... (CCC 523)

Notice the part in bold?  It's this scriptural fact which serves as the basis for a theological postulation which asserts St. John the Baptist was free from original sin, the privation of grace, at a certain point in his mother's womb.  A Catholic who knows his or her faith might interject though, “I thought Jesus and Mary were the only ones never to have had original sin,” and this would be a correct conclusion. The key is that neither Jesus nor Mary were conceived with original sin, nor did they personally sin during their lifetimes.  If John received sanctifying grace before he was born, it nevertheless happened after his conception. Therefore, he was conceived with original sin, as we all are.  But can it be demonstrated that John did receive a kind of pre-natal Baptism?  When, if so, did this happen?

Impeccability (Sinlessness)

Let's reflect on the holiness of Christ and Mary first. As all Christians acknowledge, Jesus, fully man, is completely sinless ipso facto because he is fully divine in nature too.  According to Catholic dogma (divinely revealed truth infallibly defined by the Church), Mary is also sinless because of a singular privilege of prevenient grace, which protected her from the stain of original sin at the first moment of her existence.  In other words, her divine Son's redemption worked retroactively to prevent her from entering into a fallen state so that she would respond to and carry out her special mission as Mother of the Savior (Jesus saved her but in a different way).  Scripture and Tradition refer to Jesus as the new and Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:22) and Mary as the new Eve (Gn. 3:15).  The old Adam and old Eve were created in a state of original holiness and justice, but pushed God away and forfeited their supernatural inheritance. The new Adam and new Eve were also created (as human beings) in a state of grace, yet both obeyed the Father and retained their love for Him.  Only Jesus and Mary had complete impeccability during their earthly lives, something all the saved will  enjoy in heaven. 

Back to the Baby Baptist

Okay, so unlike Jesus and Mary, St. John the Baptist was conceived with original sin, but can we pinpoint an early stage where he did receive grace?  There is evidence in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition which shows God sanctified John after his conception but before his birth to prepare the Forerunner for his later mission as the last and greatest prophet who would herald the coming of the Christ.  

An article on Mary's Immaculate Conception at the online Catholic Encyclopedia contains a section on the conception of John the Baptist and highlights this belief in his pre-natal holiness: 

The soul of the precursor was not preserved immaculate at its union with the body, but was sanctified either shortly after conception from a previous state of sin, or through the presence of Jesus at the visitation.

Proof in Scripture?

But where in the Bible can we find such proof?  The gospel of Luke provides the clearest evidence. In announcing the Forerunner’s coming birth to John’s father Zechariah, the Angel Gabriel promises:

“And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of [the] Lord...He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:14-15). 

Notice, that Gabriel points out John "will be filled" with the Holy Spirit. The Greek verb is πλησθήσεται (plēsthēsetai), a future passive tense, indicating that eventually the actual indwelling of the Spirit within a person will occur. Later, when the Blessed Virgin, pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin St. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with St. John, Elizabeth exclaims: 

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.’” (Luke 1:41-44)

Luke points out that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Lord inspires her to proclaim those famous words of Marian veneration which are recognizable as part of the "Hail Mary".  Yet, Gabriel's promise to Zechariah also appears to have its fulfillment. Although still hidden from the world in his mother's womb, St. John intuitively rejoices in the presence of the unborn Christ child, whose Spirit touches the Forerunner's heart.  Pope Innocent III appears to interpret this moment in Scripture as John's unmerited reception of grace.

“John the Baptist, sent by Him, was holy and just, and in the womb of his mother was filled with the Holy Spirit.”(“Eius exemplo” Letter to the Archbishop of Terraco, Dec. 18, 1208)

What Did the Doctors Say?

Not an OB/GYN obviously.  A church doctor (teacher) is a saint whose writings (teachings) are held to have universal benefit for the whole Church, and several of them believed in St. John's pre-born sanctification. In his Summa Theolgiae, Question 27, Article 6, Replies to Objections 2 & 3 St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, supports this belief and even makes the case that John’s sanctification provides support for infant Baptism since God retroactively infused saving grace for John before birth. In John’s case, the amniotic waters substituted as the waters of Baptism through which the Holy Spirit sanctified him. 

One might object and point out that an adult St. John later proclaims to Christ, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?". This shows that he was not sanctified in the womb.  But John’s expression was one of humility before the Lord, who had come to model obedience, repentance, and solidarity in receiving John’s symbolic baptism (even though Christ did not need to repent nor be baptized by John nor later by His Church's sacrament of Baptism).  John in requesting his own ritual from Christ, shows that he, like most of us, did occasionally sin after receiving grace and had to confess and work on continual conversion.  Aquinas points this out, stating that unlike Jesus and Mary, St. John most likely had venial sin, but not mortal (see Question 27. Article 6. Reply to Objection 1),

However, there were saints of the opinion that St. John did not sin at all throughout his life.  St. Catherine of Siena, a Doctor of the Church, declared so when she examined her own struggles: 

“Wretch that I am! John the Baptist never sinned and was sanctified in his mother's womb. And I have committed so many sins..." — A Treatise of Prayer, (1370)

A Catholic is not bound to hold the belief that John never personally sinned though.  

Additional Papal Confirmation

Although the timing of John’s justification has never been dogmatically defined, another papal pronouncement does add doctrinal weight to the belief in John's pre-born holiness.  In 1894, Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Iucunda Semper Expectatione, a reflection on the rosary, explicitly taught:

Then St. John the Baptist, by a singular privilege, is sanctified in his mother's womb and favoured with special graces that he might prepare the way of the Lord; and this comes to pass by the greeting of Mary who had been inspired to visit her cousin. (#2)

In that short passage, Pope Leo seems to confirm that 1) John enjoyed a unique privilege of prenatal sanctification; 2) he received special graces; and 3) this all happened when he leapt at the sound of Mary's voice. 

Liturgical Evidence

Because St. John the Baptist seems to already have been a saint at birth and in light of his important mission and martyrdom for Christ, his birthday, June 24th is one of only three birthdays celebrated on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar.  The other two are Jesus on December 25th and Mary on September 8th.  It is also noteworthy that the Church, since ancient times has also celebrated the conceptions of the same three: St. John on September 23rd, Mary on December 8th, and Jesus on March 25th.  Count nine months ahead in the cases of Jesus and Mary and one calculates a perfect nine months of gestation in the womb -- a symbol of the holy perfection of the persons (although Mary’s conception was immeasurably below that of her divine Son).  St. John misses this perfect calculation by a calendar day, symbolizing that he was conceived with a fallen nature.  Regardless, he lived a life of exemplary devotion to God, remaining faithful even to the point of martyrdom. Plus, holiness is not about starting out perfect, but trusting Christ, the perfect man, to help us through our struggles and achieve perfection: to love God and neighbor without impediment. 

In the Maronite Catholic calendar, St. John's birth is also commemorated on the third of six Sundays during the Eastern Advent season called "Happy Announcements".  The Baptist is one of the universal Church's models for Advent, since he prepared the way for Jesus and looked forward to his coming even from the womb. Advent calls upon all of us to relive the ancient expectancy for the Messiah, rejoice over his continual presence now, and look forward to his future coming at the end of all things. But every life is an Advent, a preparation to meet the Lord face-to-face one day and be fully transformed in Him.  Therefore, the Church highlights the humility of the Baptist as a virtue to imitate:

By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: "He must increase, but I must decrease." (CCC 524)

A final note: John's universal birthday on June 24th is six months before Christ's birthday on December 25th. Since John's birth comes after the Summer solstice, the days begin to shorten; light decreases as John wished his own reputation to decrease before the manifestation of the Lord.  After the Winter solstice and Christmas, the days will lengthen after the darkest hours, signifying John's wish that Christ's light should increase in the world and be our eternal radiance. 

                              Click to view the 2.5 minute video. 

© Joe Aboumoussa