Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-01-01
HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS
WHAT ITS OBSERVANCE SHOULD
MEAN TO CHRISTIANS.
Excerpts From Rev. Father Cunning
hams Sermon at Midnight Mass
Too Little Attention Paid to the
Proper Celebration of the Festival.

.
Proper Celebration Of the Festival.
; We have assembled here this even
ing, dear brethren. to celebrate the
1903d anniversary of the birth of the
Son of God. 1t is strange and very
sad that this day is not more univer-
sally observed for outside the Catholic
church there is very little attention
paid to this day. There are many
communities and millions of people,
calling themselves, strange to say
Christians and they do not know even
when the day comes and If they were
told of 1t they would not know the
meaning of 1t or what was the sense
of it, and this, brethren, is all the more
remarkable because the keeping of
birthdays is nearly universal the world
over. In every house the birthday of
every child Is observed by some little
thing different to mark the day as a
different day for that child from the
rest of the year. All nations observe
the birthday Of their founders and
few of their distinguished men, and
this is all very right and very proper
and even necessary, because we for
forget their teachings and examples
and except the great events of history
are recalled to our minds by stated
/ festivals every year or SO, these events
of history will be forgotten entirely.
Hence 1t is that in reading the Old
Testament. that part of the Holy
Scripture written before our Lords
! time, we are struck how God COM
manded so strictly the Jews of old to
/ observe certain festivals every year
and to keep in their minds the princi-
| pal events in their national and relig-
/ ious life. Hence 1t is that we find that
| God commanded them to observe the
/ feast. what is called the Pasch, TO OBJ |
serve it every year for seven days, and |
that feast was kept in memory of the /
last supper which the Jews took in |
Egypt as slaves before their great |
law-giver and captain, Moses, led them |
out of Egypt and every one Of the /
Jews were commanded to eat supper, |
as near as possible like to the way that +
their forefathers had taken their last I
supper in Egypt. They were obliged |
on certain night in the year to kill a
lamb and to roast that lamb and to
eat it standing with knapsacks on
their backs and STATS in their hands,
the way their forefathers did in Egypt
and they were obliged to observe what
is called the feast Of Tabernacles. that
is to say. every Jew, man, woman and
child. was obliged to leave his house
for a week every year to live in tents
and booths in the field and by the
roadside, and the motive Of that was to
keep in their minds the fact that their
forefathers when delivered from the
slavery of Egypt and on their journey
from Egypt towards the land of Pales
tine. where they had been led by Mo-
SEES. that their forefathers were then
obliged to live in tents and booths. In
that day there We're no houses no res
taurants There was little danger,
dear brethren. Of anyone who passed
through a day in slavery in Egypt for
getting the last supper that they took
there. and there was no danger of a
man or woman who travelled through
the desert forgetting that painful jour
ney. There was no danger OF anyone ,
who took part In these things of ever
forgetting. but there was danger of a
child forgetting and that was the rea-
son that He commanded these feasts {
to be kept and God said to the Jews, J
When your children in after genera :
tions ask of you why you take thist /
supper standing and take it differently
from every other night in the year, tel !
them what have done for their fore- i
fathers and you will tell them that
his supper is taken in remembrance of
he way their forefathers suffered In r
Egypt and you will tell them how God n
had pity upon them and rose up that y
great man, Moses, to free them"
This, dear brethren. is the meaning II
md the sense and the motive and the c
lin of all religious feasts, to recall To- +
,ur minds the favors God has done for A
he human race at different times. 2
The church. dear brethren, has dis h
inguished Christmas day and honored NJ
I in many ways. In the first place, .
he has distinguished it by allowing
he Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be r.
'ffered up in this hour of the night, g
nd this is custom that of all the q
ustoms of the church goes back into 81
he second century, so that in coming NJ
ere now, to assist in the Sacrifice of 3.
he Mass, you are perpetuating GUS Fl
ON of your forefathers that has been u
ept for the past 1900 years. T;
St Chrysostom calls this day a IL
model of all feasts, because if there Il
we're no Christmas there would be no r,
Their Christmas feasts, there would be X,
o Easter, no Epiphany, no Ascension. pt
Il the commencement we find our n,
orefathers, all of them part of the Ii
unrchipiOe SIM III
he moon, fire and even beasts of the ar Or
eld anything but God. and it is Ca
roper that we should celebrate this lie
east with great rejoicing. The church
therefore, distinguishes this day in an ~ ~
Their way. in allowing three Masses TO Re
e said on Christmas day. At these We
hree Masses. the Gospels that are ~ ~
cad give us in detail the account of Co
he Birth of the Son of God the means Po
,ade use of and about the time and ! .
ne place and the manner and in II,
.ances of His birth. The second Cos Ia
81 will tell US about the conduct of na
he Shepherds to whom the announce Ha
tent of the birth of Christ was first Ia
lade, and in the third Gospel, st. John La r.,
Ills us how the Son of God made not la
My the world, but everything that ~ ~
as been made in the world. st. John Sp
$50 says, The world was made by
i'm, and He came into the world. and W.
lie world knew Him not, and He came =
His own and His own received Him n
Of but as many as received Him, He III
ave to them power to become the n
ms of God" Now. dear brethren, the
of our Lords birth are
g,,l- cf,. a (
ould never think of. The cold, bleak