THEOLOGICAL CLUE

As one of the major festivals of the Christian church - and probably the most popular - Christmas liturgies were shaped by gospel tradition and worship practices in the early church. In Jerusalem, by the fourth century, there were three masses of Christmas: the first was at midnight in the Grotto of the Nativity at Bethlehem, the second took place at dawn, after the faithful had walked back to Jerusalem, in the Church of the Resurrection, and, later in the day, a third and solemn mass was celebrated. The nature of these eucharistic services informs us that "Christmas was never meant to be the object of the festival. Rather, it is the occasion of the feast of thanksgiving, which commemorates Jesus' entrance (incarnation) into the world" That's why the John 1 Gospel was inc…