(Sermon Notes by Venerable John Henry Newman, 1851)
1. INTROD.�[The] two chief festivals [of the Church are]
Easter and Christmas; [of these] Easter [is] the greater.
2. Yet somehow we adorn our churches more brightly and spontaneously, now than
then. There is more of heart, apparently, in what we do. And there is an inexpressible
charm over all. The midnight Mass, the three Masses. The special representations,
whether the Stable or the Infant. [Again, the singing of] carols.
3. Why is this? Christmas is easier to understand to the mass of men; it comes
home to them more readily, and imposes an easier duty on our worship.
4. It is the difference between coming and going. The apostles felt that sorrow
filled their hearts [at the going of the Lord]. Mane nobiscum Domine. Easter
is the feast of the perfect. If we were perfect, we should rejoice in Easter
the more [of the two festivals]. In the one Christ comes to us, in the other
we go to Christ.
5. All our human feelings are soothed by Christmas� {96} Abraham had to leave
his country.�We naturally do not like to move. We are allowed to remain at home:
Christ comes to us as our guest.
6. And coming, He brightens everything. He does not take away, He adds. He adds
grace to Nature. If at any time we might love the world, it is now. If at any
time, [it is when He is come to be our Emmanuel].
7. He makes the world our home, for he deigns to be the light of it. He sanctifies
families with the image of Mary and Jesus. And where there is no home in a family,
then He brings us all together in one family in church. The midnight Mass is
our holy celebration [of Christmas], eclipsing the world’s merrymaking.
8. And we think of Him who put off all His glory, of which our celebrations
are but a type. The priestly vestments a type of His glory, [which He put off
in order] to come into this bleak prison and suffer for us.
9. Let us rejoice in Him.
I am sorry about stepping into the territory of Quenta N�rwenion with this Newman
post and I promise not to post on Tolkien since I discovered Tolkien even later
than I came into Christianity.
