By Father Paul Kam Po-wai
On Christmas Eve, December 24, all parishes celebrate midnight Mass. Although “midnight” refers to the early morning of December 25, due to the large number of people, it is not possible to take care of all the faithful with only one Mass, so some parishes will arrange two or three Masses. There are also some parishes that do not want, or do not find it convenient, to celebrate Mass too late at night, so they arrange for “midnight Masses” to be celebrated at 7pm, 8pm, 9pm or 10pm, etc. In this way, some parishes celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ several times in one night!
On this night, we will see a lot of unfamiliar faces, because we have a lot of “CEO Catholics” [Christmas and Easter Only] who will show up that night, which means that many only come back to the church to attend Mass on Christmas and Easter. And because of the strong Christmas atmosphere, many will take the opportunity to bring their friends and relatives who are non-believers to attend the Mass. On the one hand, it allows them to feel the atmosphere of the religious festival, and on the other hand, it is an opportunity to evangelise them. In any case, Christmas Eve, the holy night, the Christmas Day, are celebrations of the birth of the Saviour Jesus Christ, and the mission of the Church is to proclaim this good news and this salvation to all people.
Apart from the midnight Mass, Christmas carolling is another evangelisation opportunity and it is more direct. Therefore, many parishes, faith groups and diocesan organisations have held carollings in hospitals, prisons, old people’s homes, shopping malls, housing estates, streets, etc., to send Christmas greetings to different people. Christmas is really a very suitable festival and a good opportunity to evangelise.
In fact, proclaiming the Good News and preach the gospel should be our daily mission. Usually, we like to bring the gospel to people through activities, but the most effective way is to preach the gospel through the testimony of our lives.
Our first target for evangelising is ourselves. We need to experience the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst daily through the Word, sacraments, prayers, and the life of the Church, and then, through our lives, we can bring love and the gospel to our family and friends with the support of a community’s love and the sharing of the gospel. It is only in this way can we powerfully and effectively spread the gospel through our liturgical life and through our various activities.
Just as Jesus called his disciples to be with him always, and to be sent out to preach [Mark 3:14]. It means that we need to be with Jesus all the time before we are sent out to proclaim the Good News and evangelise.
Brothers and sisters who go carolling, God is always with us, but are we always with him?
