Dr Robert Haddad - What is True and False about Christmas.

well this talk is gonna focus specifically on Christmas now tomorrow's the beginning of Advent so this is a very very relevant presentation now I love Christmas I'm sure all of us too as for my various beginning what I can remember about my early childhood was mostly related around Christmas I certainly can remember Christmas 1969 well I've got some good presents in 1969 things began to go downhill in 1970 and 71 I didn't get many good presents but began to pick up again in 1972 onwards then I got old enough to buy my own presents so Christmas was good after that one of the earliest photos I have of myself was me probably only about six or seven months old and I'm sitting under a Christmas tree and I always loved Christmas every year coming around again it gives me that sense of completion for the year as well especially when we have extended holidays around that period but unfortunately not everyone loves Christmas and for different reasons I'm focusing here today to talk about what to focus on what is good what is true about Christmas I've also I'm going to focus on some aspects about what is false about Christmas as well so we need to purify Christmas our understanding of Christmas and how we celebrate it because it is changing and we're living in a world of great change and not all that change is good as we can obviously see now as Catholics most Catholics who are growing up and practice their faith in whatever degree would go to Mass and Christmas and unfortunately there's too many Christmas and Easter Catholics today they go for the big events the churches are full of Christmas time they're full during midnight mass and they're full around Easter time and there's a a lot of those people sadly don't come throughout the rest of the year but at least they come for Christmas and of course the church has a liturgy specifically for Christmas Day and the very word itself Christ mass denote it as a very Catholic word the Masek sitter and this is why we get some groups now let's focus firstly on religious groups who don't like Christmas we might you might know a little bit of English history you might know a little bit about the Reformation in England and then later on the the the English Civil War and we saw the Puritans rise up and dominate in England during the seven seventeenth century particularly under Cromwell Oliver Cromwell this is a period known as the interregnum when there's no Kings in England the Stewart's were temporarily overthrown and Cromwell was ruling in England as a Puritan as Lord Protector this is around 1649 to 1660 one or the Puritans abolished Christmas a little bit too strict a little bit too over-the-top but one reason why they would have abolished Christmas was not because of the excesses they would have seen in the revelry and the celebration and there may be a little bit too much to eat and a little bit too much to drink they opposed it ideologically or theologically they would say well it's not in the Bible and it's - it's a it's a Polish thing it's too Catholic Mass you know having these fierce feasts it's not in the Bible so we shouldn't be celebrating it it's another one of those Catholic semi pagan corruptions or accretions that's come into authentic Christianity so we need to purge ourselves of these celebrations that are not biblically based and you also get that mentality with the say for example Jehovah Witnesses they use the same reasoning it's to Catholic in origin and in name and it's not in the Bible the only people celebrating Christmas in the Bible and if we're biblical Christians we shouldn't be celebrating Christmas especially like the Catholic well actually I can go to one verse in the Bible and very simply and very quickly show you that we should celebrate Christmas because that on that night that Jesus was born the Angels celebrated and that's enough for me we got to look two verses 13 to 14 and what do we have the Angels saying glory to God in the highest they're appearing they're appearing in the large number in an array we get the word in Greek strategy like we get strategy from that word it's there in battle formation and they're crying out they're singing out the glorifying God for this wonderful event they're singing and praising God they're celebrating because God has come into the world as man and they understand the big picture here they understand that there's salvific action of God here this isn't benefiting the Angels the angels don't these angels that are celebrating they don't need Redemption they're celebrating because God's bringing bringing forth rolling out his plan of salvation for Humanity and if the angels could celebrate what we should be celebrating there's nothing wrong with celebrating something good okay and this is something good this is something very good in fact is there anything better than this except for Christ's death and resurrection marries yes at the Annunciation behold the handmaid of the Lord be done unto me according to thy word that yes which was free total self-giving that yes opened heaven you got a marks gospel the word there in Greek is skeer as a moss we get the english words schizos scissors cut to tear mary's yes taught open heaven mary's yes enabled God to come out of heaven and into the world in the form of in the form of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus Christ God man okay now God could have come into the world directly and we'll look at this later on they could have come into the world directly not through Mary but that wasn't the plan and for important for an important reason Mary's yes opened heaven and we call me as a consequence gate of heaven she's the gate through which God came into the world as one of us without this event without marriage yes without Christmas we would not have had Easter would have not have had Good Friday or the resurrection because for that to occur that needed to be the Messiah needed to have human nature to be able to hang on the cross and to rise from the dead and that's why we celebrate Christmas okay Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and for us at a beginning level would ask the question well when did this happen we're celebrating it in the liturgy December 25 kids been taught about Christmas thing oh that's when Jesus was born that's his birthday because we all have birthdays and when was Jesus's birthday well December 25 okay Oh what year or the obviously the the year one or the year naught or what more okay it's a bit confusing here what year was Jesus born these are important questions young kids ask these questions adults ask these questions if adults didn't ask these questions we wouldn't be calling this year 2017 because we're numbering it from what event involving which person 2017 since Wow well okay let's try and get some answer here well Jesus wasn't really born in the year 0 or the year 1 you can't have a year 0 heavy one BC and then you have the one AD well Jesus wasn't really born at the beginning of one AD either the first calculations we have in fact 2017 this number we are living in today this year number were living in today that number is arise from the work of a Greek monk in the 5th century named Dianna CS exiguous or an English desk Dennis the short and dennis is short he made a sincerity him to work out how many years from his time backwards to the birth of Jesus these calculations and he knows that Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus Caesar okay when Herod the Great was ruling in a Judea and Samaria etc alright and he came to the conclusion that it was X number of years from that moment until his time and we followed that through the 2017 an actual fact Dennis or Diana says in all sincerity got it wrong an innocent mistake but he got it wrong in fact really we still don't know for certain what is right when I first prepared this talk and I presented it actually in Perth last year I was pretty sure that we can say that Jesus was born no later than four BC because he's born in the reign of Herod the Great and Herod the Great by our modern calculations dies for BC and that would have been in the 20th year of the reign of Augustus Caesar who became the first emperor of Rome and he began his reign actually no 27 BC so that would have been in the 23rd year of the reign of Augustus Caesar and Augustus went on terrain until 14 AD but actually now I year later I can't say for BC or 5 BC or 6 BC with any level of certainty because other readings I've I've come across very recently tell us well you know it's plausible that Herod the Great lived to as late as 1 BC and that Jesus would have been born maybe around 2 or 3 BC rather than 4 or 5 or 6 BC and the reason for this is based on these censuses that we read about in in the New Testament I mean in the gospel why does sin Joseph in Our Lady why do they move from Nazareth to Bethlehem at the time Jesus is about to be born because of a proclamation a decree issued by who or Gustus caesar for purposes of registration it doesn't actually say for the purposes of paying tax middle east's and people are not good at paying tax okay so I don't think that would have worked I'm sure Joseph and Mary being very honest would have paid all their taxes but nevertheless this was the registration and we go to sources outside of the Gospels we do know that August's Caesar was very fond of having registration even censuses he had one in 8 BC had one in AD six we also had one and three to two BC and this was for the purpose of getting in getting everyone to go back to their place of birth to register in order to give allegiance to Augustus Caesar as Emperor as the first in the Empire and so people believed and rightfully so there's good grounding for these that Joseph and Joseph and our lady were responding to this decree around 3 to 2 BC so Jesus is born around 2 BC Herod the Great dies around 1 BC that's that's where I'm moving to at the moment but again maybe more research could find out something more in the future it's very important what day then okay so let's come to some type of agreement around 2 BC that's the case this is not 2017 is a 2019 and I'm 2 years closer to retirement no not really and were 2 years old and they're not really ok but it's always a lot of fun because we actually get everything wrong people were saying yesterday yesterday 1st of December is the beginning of summer now it's not it's not the beginning the summer it's not the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere either as we'll see that's around December 21 and for good reason and this is Saturday and it's the second last day of the week no it's not the last day of the week Sunday the first day of the week and this is December and it's the 12th month of the year now it's not it's the tenth month of the year that's why it's called death there see more decade all right 10th month no of 9 Oh eight set seven okay this talk will reveal and give reasons as to why the ancients were a lot wiser than we give them credit for and that we're not so wise as much as we think we are anyway now what about the actual birthday of Jesus was it December 25 we really don't know I remember being when I was still very young probably in primary school and we'll I was being taught I went to a public school I never went to a Catholic school but we got we got taught about Christmas was before the rabid secularization that prevails upon us today and I was told that you know Jesus was not born in wintertime so he couldn't have been born in December as we celebrate because in wintertime in that part of the world in the Middle East and in Judea etcetera around Bethlehem it's too cold to have shepherds out at night for shepherds to be out at night it would have been in warmer times maybe spring maybe summer there was actually one father of the church clement of alexandria and now clement was a very important figure in 2nd century Christianity he was the second head of the great katha catechol School in Alexandria we have a lot to thank Clement for a lot of saints came out of that school and writers etc well Clement said that Jesus was born on the 20th of May and I think oh that's cute because I'm born on the 21st of May so my birthday's next to Jesus's birthday but then again as I was growing up that would have been a even bigger problem for me because I didn't get many presents around 1970-71 as I said and if I had my birthday next to Christmas I would have got even less presents only only once a year getting presents rather than two so I hope it's not May 20 but it doesn't worry me now but if it is May 20 I could go with that why cuz that's in spring and there's something about the way God acts God doesn't just act accidentally or capriciously in on in all these movements acting in accordance with a symbol and to give meaning and to be born in spring would have been appropriate because spring is about new life resurrection winter for the ancients represented death burial spring is about coming back to life again resurrection that's what Jesus was all about coming into the world to give humanity new life and resurrection so I would think I would go with the view that Jesus was born in springtime in the northern hemisphere so it could have been April could have been May whatever all right okay well why was why do we celebrate December 25 is it another one of those Catholic corruptions you know is it another one of those papal decisions that distort the original gospel complicate things add things that shouldn't be there exerting they're not really got to put in as historical context plus understanding pagan religions back in those early centuries when Christianity was fledgling in the beginning to get a foothold in the world go back to the time for example look we have evidence we have evidence that Christmas was being celebrated on December 25 in the fourth century it was accepted in the West before the Year 354 in the East from the Year 379 onwards we have evidence that Christmas was being celebrated on December 25 I was also celebrated in certain parts on the 6th of January sinned John Chrysostom's writings tell us that that doesn't really matter even today there are churches in communion with Rome that celebrate Christmas on the 6th of January okay like the Ukrainians for example that's fine it's not a problem it's no reason to to debate and have an argument over but anyway from the from our perspective why was December 25th consolidated as that date are you can go back to Gregory the Great whose Pope in the late sixth century early 7th century 5 9 it was 605 and looking to the north from Rome you had those barbarians in Germany not much a lot of bad stuff came out of Germany a lot of good stuff as well but the barbarians out there in the north and their worship been all sorts of things and they worship Saturnalia etc and they have all these feasts in December 25 was an important feast for many pagan religions back to this thing about the beginning of summer winter spring autumn these cycles revolved around what we call the equinoxes and the solstices now they are I'll give you the dates that we're about to approach for us here the summer solstice which is December 21 that's a winter winter solstice in the northern hemisphere then we come to the equinoxes March 21 then we come to the June 21 which for us is the winter solstice and in northern hemisphere the summer solstice and then we come to another Equinox September 21 now the important date for us let's look at December 21 in the northern hemisphere it's that day which is the shortest day of the year sure to stay by way of the length of daylight for us it's the longest day of the year the day of the year which we have the longest amount of daylight and the shortest amount of night time for the ancients the way they looked at it these ancients that worshipped dying and rising gods their gods died on December 21 that was a shortest the darkest day of the year December 25 was the first day that they could measure that the length of daylight was beginning to expand again extend again so that was the day the gods came back to life that was the day for example where they worship the rebirth of the Unconquered Sun the invincible Sun the solar Invictus actually driving that down Parramatta Road yesterday towards the city and honest around where Sydney University is on the left is a store Solar Invictus okay so we've kept that somewhere as a remnant the invincible Sun the invincible Sun has died on December 21 and has reborn on December 25 now if your strategists in those centuries and you want to evangelize pagan peoples and it's very hard to do so what you got to do you got to try and shift them gently so don't go in there hacking away and destroying all their feasts and celebrations and then go in there and baptize them go in there and transition so you'd still celebrate that day but don't celebrate the rebirth of your Unconquered Sun or invincible Sun celebrate the birth of the true unconquered Baal invincible Sun som and that's Jesus of Nazareth Jesus Christ the Messiah and that's good well put the will celebrate will change that day the nature of that day Christianized it and have it focus on Jesus Christ and we'll have celebrate his birthday even though we don't know that was his actual birthday it doesn't really matter oh I have grandparents my wife have grandparents they don't know their birthday is hot like that but they still celebrate they pick a day and they celebrate all right okay because historically they were born we know they were born because they exist and Jesus exists so he was born so we don't know the day so we'll choose one and we say December 25 and let's go back then 9 months go back to March December 25 plot March 25 that's where we'll pop the Annunciation that's when we'll celebrate the angel Gabriel appearing to Marian saying how full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and Mary's Avant's behold the handmaid of the Lord be done unto me according to thy word let's put it there and that's so convenient why it's so convenient it's because in that time in history the Romans their first month of the year was March March April May June July became July was reduced sextillion or ggest September August was sextillion becomes augustus August August September Sept 7 October 8 knob 9 December 10 so it fits beautifully we'll put this up that that will open the year the year begins with the month of March and we'll have the beginning of Christianity celebrated in the beginning of the year the first month of the year on March 25 and linked that nine months later to December 25 the tenth month and then you had of course Paul February February would be the twelfth month and it's the shortest month of the year because it picked up what days were left over okay that's keeping it simple but the Romans had their calendar in that way from about 700 BC onwards and even after Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 BC March was the first month because March is the God that named after their God of War Mars March and they loved Mars because that Romans were so inclined you know Wars battles shedding blood red relates to blood all right now the word so that's basically keeping it simple how we get December 25 as the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus okay what about calling a Christ Mass you know we still do don't we as Catholics we do and Eastern Orthodox people do and it's appropriate for all of us as Catholics and Eastern Orthodox achill to name that day Christ Mass because we believe in the mass it's just the mass in which we celebrate the birth of Christ many Protestant Christians who believe in Christmas who celebrate Christmas happily call it Christmas but they don't actually realize that the word Christmas relates to mass the mass celebrating the birth of Jesus and so there's a bit of an inconsistency there isn't there they don't have a mass they don't believe in the mass but they're happy to call this feast Christ's mass the mass that's because they don't know its origins they just go with it we need to understand the reason for that word it's the mass in which we celebrate the birth of Christ and for short Christ mass and we need to keep it that name because they're gonna there are forces out there very strong forces out there who want to change the name it's their way of unbaptized as we gradually shifted that day to be focused on Christ in his birth modern society is slowly shifting that day to focus away from Jesus and his birth now I remember growing up even in my 20s and I got to know other Catholics who would look at that word Xmas x-mas with grave suspicion and negativity and criticism and say ah that's part of the process and modern society to take Christ out of Christmas and my response to that is here perhaps for some yes some would use some would use Xmas as a comfortable way of taking Christ quietly out of it because we're not really that Christian and to cite to use the name Christ or to refer to Christ it's a bit embarrassing you know and we've got to appeal to the non-christians and our society and if I'm gonna say Merry Christmas on my shop front window I want to I don't want to be exclusive or you know offend anybody so we'll keep it as Christmas look you need to be suspicious about Xmas you need to be but at the same time you don't have to be over hostile tour because it is still it can be still interpreted and in a legitimate Catholic or Christian why because the X is really the Greek letter Chi which forms the first letter of the Greek word crystals okay so if you know how to what the word crystals looks like in Greek it starts with an X which was the letter Chi CH I church er okay in Greek so it's just an abbreviated way a legitimate abbreviated way of saying Christ --mess but I don't encourage your use you know I still don't like to use Xmas I feel I'm lazy and a bit compromised and you using it but it doesn't it's not totally depraved as a way of expressing the word another good and true and beautiful thing about Christmas Christmas cowls and we'll mention them more so again later on but I want to focus right now on one particular Carol that is not my favorite but it's very deep and rich and that's the the 12 days of Christmas Carol on the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me etcetera etcetera we're gonna have a look at this this Christmas Carol almost verse by verse and we're going to understand how its code language the origins of this Christmas Carol this is a Catholic Christmas Carol originating from England in the time of the Protestant Reformation it was a catechetical way of passing on the Catholic faith in a time of terrible persecution so my true love said to me who's a true love that was code for Jesus Christ partridge in a pear tree what is the Partridge represents Jesus Christ because that bird is willing to sacrifice itself if necessary to protect its young by feigning injury to draw away predators and Jesus sacrificed himself for us then we have the two turtledoves the two turtledoves is code for the two Testaments old and new testaments the three French hens stands for the theological virtues of faith hope and love three theological virtues the four calling Birds stands for the four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John the five golden rings represent the first five books of the Old Testament the Pentateuch let me hope I get this one right Genesis Exodus numbers Deuteronomy and Leviticus I'm not sure I've got them in the right order but I've got the right names then we've got the six geese a-laying the six days of creation the seven swans a-swimming the seven fold gives to the Holy Spirit the eight maids a-milking the eight Beatitudes the nine ladies dancing the nine choirs of angels the ten Lords a-leaping other Ten Commandments the eleven pipers piping are the eleven faithful apostles and the twelve drummers drumming are the twelve points of belief in the Apostles Creed and I think I only realized all that a couple of years ago and I think it's very beautiful and it's it's a one I presume it was an important tool in those terrible days of persecution well anyway back onto this point I was emphasizing a little bit earlier on when we celebrate Christmas we're celebrating God becoming man but I want to really impress upon this point the significance of it we hold talks at another parish regularly at sir Michaels the Archangel at Bell field we've been doing that for twenty-two years and one day there's a Protestant gentleman who came to the talk it was a very nice fellow lovely and after the talk were having tea and coffee we got chatting and he just said look I'm not really comfortable with that picture on the wall there the picture of Mary and Jesus Mary's so big and Jesus is so small you know it's a Madonna picture Mary Mother of Jesus it's a baby Jesus in her arms and he was saying well you know that's that represents to me how Catholics disproportionately emphasize Mary and under emphasized Jesus Mary is an adult Jesus just an infant baby and that's I can understand how he comes to that conclusion but I fortunately was inspired quickly enough to respond and saying I tell you why it's important to have that depiction I mean we've got many different types of depictions of Jesus and Mary in all our churches around the world of course the Madonna and Child depiction is very common and we see it almost everywhere and it's a good thing why because that tells us that Jesus Christ came into the world not just as a baby but came into the world through a mother a woman and why is that so important okay you're telling us what we all know but what the theological importance of this the christological importance or what the importance of it from the point of view of sociology that is the study that's the theology of salvation that's that's all it's all about salvation isn't Jesus coming to the world is about saving sinners salvation well who would save from what save from hell saved from original sin well who committed this original sin well our original parents if you believe in original sin I hopefully you do okay not everyone does these days original sin committed by original parents Adam and Eve it was their sin which offended God and ruptured the relationship between God and humanity now the sin of Adam and Eve was of infinite magnitude why do we say that because she measured the degree of a sin against the dignity of the person who's offended and the dignity here is the dignity of God and he is infinite so this sin this has sin of pride based on disobedience or sorry disobedience based on pride was of infinite degree to do the reparation for this sin however well the reparation had to come from humanity because it was humanity who offended God but here we have the problem to do the act of reparation the active reparation had to be of infinite value because this offense was of infinite degree infinite magnitude but when measuring the ability to do an act of infinite reparation well we have to look at the person who needs to do that act and that's a that they are human creatures and human creatures being creatures cannot do anything of infinite merit and this is the wrap we were in this is the hole we had buried ourselves in we could offend God to an infinite degree but we couldn't do an act of infant reparation and strictly speaking of God was just a judge just a legalist he could rightfully turn around and say to humanity look I'm sorry but you knew the rules of engagement you knew if you ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that you would die the death a double death death in your body and death in your soul eternal damnation you had full knowledge and gave full consent and you get what you deserve because you were forewarned fortunately or gracefully God is not like that and he's mercy and love for us freely unmerited he will choose to save us even though we don't deserve to now God could have saved us in any way he chose okay he's freely choosing to save us he's not compelled to we never did anything we had no merit on our own part to compel God or make God save us God's saves us freely and he's free to choose how he will save us but God also wants us in His mercy still wants to satisfy a justice element here his mercy is that he will save us even though we don't deserve to but he's going to do it in a way which satisfies the justice element and the justice element says he that humanity has to do the act of reparation and it has to be the human family of Adam so God will become one of the family of Adam he will become a member of the family of Adam in order to represent the family of Adam in order to do a sacrifice of infinite merit on the cross which could be offered to the father on behalf of the family of Adam that justice element would not have been satisfied if Jesus just appeared into the world as an adult not to any woman not through any Mary just came into the world as true God and true man and went through everything he did that we read about in the Gospels taught preached parables miracles arrests in a passion death resurrection ascended ascension into heaven if Jesus did all that as an someone who just came into the world as an adult without having been born of Mary then the Justice element would not have been satisfied because he offered that up yes and God could have accepted that but he wanted it to be an offering that was from the family of Adam Jesus had to be connected to the family of Adam and how was he connected to the family of Adam through Mary through Mary's yes and Jesus being born of Mary that event we celebrate on Christmas Day because Jesus is born of Mary a daughter of Adam he becomes a son of Adam he becomes one of us in nature but one of us as a family member and could offer what he does on the cross on behalf of that family because he is a member of family that's why it's okay to depict Jesus as a baby with the Madonna because it shows to us he came into the world through a daughter of Adam which was necessary for his sacrifice to be on behalf of the family of Adam so another reason why to celebrate Christmas and the significance of Jesus we've okay the significance of having midnight mass I haven't been to midnight mass in 20 years the last time I went was 1997 because I get tired and Christmas masses are long and I would really struggle especially after I got married and had kids with my wife of course that I struggle to be late at night early morning in long masses so I haven't been and I don't see myself going to a midnight mass in a long time but I still go to every Christmas Mass of course but why do we have this tradition which is very popular very poor and thanks God it's very popular we've had Midnight Mass as it began in Rome in the year 413 Pope Sixtus the 3rd began the tradition you probably know why because it's again there's symbolism involved here we know from the Gospels Jesus is born at night okay and so we don't know precisely the time and so we celebrate we'll have a mass around those early morning hours because that's when we believe what we're told that Jesus is born in those early morning hours okay now and I can see that lasting for a long time then we've got the Christmas tree we're sadly not putting up a Christmas tree in our home this year because of another cultural tradition that we have and many people many cultures have and probably your cultures do my wife's father sadly passed away suddenly in late August so we're not this is probably the first time in my life before and after I got married that we're not having a Christmas tree put up in the house well what is this Christmas tree thing all about anyway some say it originates from Germany and they've got good grounds to say that but when we talk about tree and here Christmas tree in particular we're really as you know talking about a family tree it's a family tree of Jesus I remember when I used to work in this city in the Sydney CBD and I used to go to lunchtime masters at San Mary's Cathedral and this is the late mid to late 80s I haven't seen it since but in that time they have a very beautiful very large and beautiful Christmas tree erected inside the Cathedral and on either side that I had two Scrolls of names coming down parallel coming down the Christmas tree on one side were the names of all the descendants of Jesus going back to a fellow named Jesse and then they had on the second scroll all the names of prophets who predicted who foretold the coming of the Messiah now for Jesus for Jesus of Nazareth to qualify as the Messiah among other things and we'll have a look at a third one in a moment two of the important criteria had to tick off on the must the person who claimed to be the Messiah had to show that they were born as a member of the house of David and they had to show that they satisfied other prophecies all these prophets had spoke one of them is Micah Micah chapter 5 verse 2 Bethlehem Ephrata Bethlehem in the region of Africa because more than one bit la bete I'm afraid ah you are a little one among the thousands of Judah but out of these to come to me he who is to be the ruler of my people Israel who was born of ancient days born of old of ancient days that's a prophecy so let's look firstly at the fact that the Messiah had to come from the house of David why where does it say that the Messiah had to come from the house of David we'll go to 2 Samuel 7 verses 12 to 13 this is God establishing the covenant with David moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house this is reiterating a promise going back to the time of Abraham model 1 when he said he'll make Abraham a great name and the father of many nations and I'll give you land and descendants a number of as the stars and Kings will come from your seed and one who'll be a blessing to all the nations this is just another iteration of that of the original covenant promises made to Abraham anyway make you a house when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers I'll raise up your offspring after you offspring after David who shall come forth from your body and I'll establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever so this is a covenant being made with David and a promise that the be as someone from the seed of David who will be great and his house he's thrown his kingdom will be established forever remember what the angel Gabriel said to Mary God will give him the throne of his father David and he'll reign over the house of Jacob forever and his reign shall have no end the angel Gabriel said that to point to this promise to this verse in Samuel where is this house today that has that is that is forever who reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end where's the house of David today I'm jumping ahead to another topic here really so one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is the new Israel the house of David never died out there's other prophecies you can connect to this very beautiful on the Immanuel prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 there's a qez king of Judah he's in big trouble he's besieged Israel to the north and our Arum Syria are combining to attack Judah because Judah won't go into coalition with them to fight Assyria because as I as telling Acas don't go into any coalition because I will fail you have to trust in Yahweh and our case is panicking you know and to reassure to reassure occurs as ayah says to a case ask Yahweh for a sign that your throne will last if nothing to fear a cos feigns humility false humility and then our lot imp the Lord but you know as I gives him the sign nevertheless a child shall be born I may - shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel that's the sign a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be a manual what does that mean because in that Hebrew the word there Alma doesn't necessarily translate to virgin it's equivocal it could be virgin it could be any young woman the Old Testament in the Greek the Septuagint the word there in Isaiah 7:14 is parthenons which does mean virgin that's why it came into the Gospel of Matthew as a virgin shall conceive and bear a son because Matthews saucing his Isaiah prophesies from the Septuagint not the Hebrew version and that's an interesting isn't it it's not such a big deal if you have a young woman having a son but it is a big deal if a virgin conceives and bears a son because that doesn't normally happen and he shall be called Emmanuel God among us and who tells us that that word means God among us it's and that's apostle matthew when he embeds it in chapter one of his gospel but anyway there's so much we could say here but we could run the risk of divert into other topics okay so back on this Christmas tree into Mary's Cathedral you have all the line you have to show that the Messiah that the person claiming to be the Messiah was of the house of David so we show all the lineage from Jesse through the David Jesse was the father of David that's why we call it Jesse tree and right through to Jesus and that's why we get the apostles Matthew and Luke bothering to show link a junior Lee a genealogy a link back through to David and even back further to Abraham and even back further to Adam Adam Luke goes right back to Adam and got the prophets I'll give you another prophecy that's important here okay I think I really started with it well let's finish it Bethlehem Ephrata you are a little one among the thousands of Judah now I'm at work once a couple of years ago and this very important fellow in our organization actually speaking to hundreds of us and says well we're not sure if you know the tradition tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem but we're not really sure I don't think I know well you better be sure because if Jesus wasn't born in Bethlehem then he wasn't truly the Messiah he'll be a false messiah and if his a false messiah sigh you need to resign because you're running a Catholic organization and this Catholic Church would have no credibility if Jesus Christ had no credibility was not authentically the Messiah I only belong to the Catholic Church cuz I believe Jesus Christ founded it and he is the Messiah he wasn't born in Bethlehem he couldn't tick off on that box and yes so we have to show that Jesus and that's why Matthew goes out it which were and and Luke both go out of their way to show that Jesus is born in Bethlehem to show that yeah okay we know he we call him Jesus of Nazareth and people know him to be in a serene and they use that as a derogatory term but Jesus is actually born in Bethlehem and so we use the Christmas tree to symbolize the genealogy of Christ and the fulfillment of many many prophecies we can give a whole talk and a half on the various prophecies that Christians claim from the Old Testament who which were fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth all right now let's talk about other aspects of modern day Christmas what's this scent Nicholas thing or this Santa Claus thing listen Nicholas thing is a good thing because there was a Saint Nicholas 4th century Saint from Myra where's Meyer a southern turkey on the coast Mediterranean coast they said Nicholas goes down in history for a number of good reasons he was one of those few bishops who maintained the Orthodox Catholic position on the divinity of Christ as opposed to the ascendant Arianism of his day and he was at the Council of Nicaea I've got a little bit a little bit heated a nice sear at times this in the year 325 Nicholas wasn't so saintly on one occasion and punched up one of the Aryan bishops if that that council so yeah but anyway Nikolas comes to us and is connected to Christmas because of the the pious legend and when I say legend I don't mean fictional I mean a story worthy of reading where he actually assisted three young men with their dowries so they could marry because if they didn't marry they couldn't afford to provide a dowry they wouldn't have been able to marry and they would have been forced to go into prostitution in order to survive and sosa Nicholas of Myra through in anonymously you know bags of gold through the window of their house the father's house and these bags of gold just happened to land in the stockings that were hanging over the fireplace or something to that effect alexia this is what it really was the bags of gold tossed through an open window I said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry this led to the custom of children hanging stockings are putting out shoes eagerly awaiting gears from Saint Nicholas and so Sigma cos Saint Nicholas is a gift giver okay so that's one reason why we associate giving gifts at Christmas time now in Europe December the 6th and in Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism you know December the 6th is a big day so Nicholas is a big big Saint particularly in Orthodox in Eastern Orthodoxy and so as far as I'm aware if you're in Europe and you're among good pious people around December 6 that's when they give their presents not necessarily December 25 okay and I should mention now back to that Carol that we talked about the 12 days of Christmas on the first day on the second day we receive these various gifts what Christmas is actually a season it's not a day Christmas was 12 days in length where the church thought it celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25th and the coming of the three wise men on January the six so we have that 12 day period that's Christmas it's a season 12 days and that Christmas Carol fitted into those 12 days and a different gift is given on each of the 12 days of Christmas you know a bit of Shakespeare he's played Twelfth Night Twelfth Night of Christmas season all right now we're on earth here of gifts and Christmas so when you think about Christmas and gifts you also think about the three wise men or the three kings who come to Jesus it is very interesting for many reasons and probably in for some biblical scholars very problematic let's go to Luke's Gospel and Luke's Gospel has Jesus presented in the temple at the age of 40 days you read this in chapter 2 and then Luke tells us that Jesus Mary and Joseph then go back to Nazareth and Jesus grows up wise and strong and in favori before God and man etc you really know Luke but Luke what about what about what Matthew talks about Luke mentions nothing about Jesus about the star Bethlehem the three wise men coming Herod's seeking to destroy the baby Jesus the angel Gabriel coming us and Joseph and warning the Holy Family and they scape into Egypt and then the the soldiers of Herod coming and committing the massacre of the innocents in and around Bethlem Luke mentions none of it my belief is that Luke was completely unaware of it I believe Luke tried in his gospel up before Matthew writes his gospel I believe marks written first Luke comes second gives us more information right in his gospel for Theophilus to give an orderly account but Luke was not one of the original twelve disciples twelve apostles he comes later on in the scene and Matthew is not immediately in the vicinity because Matthew has gone down the Ethiopia down the Nile to do missionary work there when he writes his gospel he writes had post Luke and adds this material that I've just mentioned that is not in Luke Luke just presumed that they went back to Nazareth glosses over that period Matthew gives us there are some other biblical scholars of the critical school tell us that Matthew made it all up none of this really happened he was lying he was writing his gospel to convince Jews to follow Jesus of Nazareth and to convince Jews he had to show that Jesus fulfilled certain prophecies these prophecies for example numbers 24:17 this comes out of Balaam the mouth of Balaam I see him but not now I behold him but not me a star will come out of Jacob a scepter will rise out of Israel he will crush the foreheads of Moab the skulls of the sons of chef's now some Christians over the centuries take this prophecy of Balaam and so are that refers to the Star of Bethlehem a star will come out of Jacob and matthew tells us about the star that led the monoi the three wise men they are not Kings they are wise men they were loosely called magicians but our astrologers an astrologer was someone who practise astronomy as we know it and call it today but also trying to know and understand and predict things by the movement of the planets and the stars all right but so Matthew's riding to show that this prophecies have filled in the star that these that the wise men followed to come to Bethlehem to Jerusalem then Bethlem me personally I don't see that this prophecy relates to the Star of Bethlehem this prophecy relates to Jesus Christ a star will come out of Jacob a scepter will rise out of Israel that star in scepter is Jesus okay the star doesn't come out of Jacob the star is seen by the wise men who come in from the east but okay but nevertheless Matthew saying there was a star and he's riding that because he believes what the early Christians believed that that star fulfilled that prophecy Psalm 72 verses 10 to 11 now there's the wisemen we say three wise men we don't know if our three wise men we say they're three because they bring gifts and there's three named gold frankincense and myrrh so we presumed three gives three wise men anyway Matthew tells us about the three wise men and their gifts because there's another prophecy in Psalm 72 and says the flowing the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores will bring tribute to him the kings of Sheba and Sieber will present him gifts all Kings were bowed down to him and all nations will serve Him now this is so written according to the mindset the geographical understanding the world of this time because if you know where Tosh's is it's in Spain so from the perspective of Jerusalem it's the western ends of the earth Sheba is yemen to the south east extremity of the Arabian Peninsula it's another extreme point Seba is across the Red Sea where basically that part of Eritrea Somalia that part of Africa other side of the Red Sea so the Gentiles will come and acknowledge this Messiah and give him gifts then we have Isaiah's prophecy Isaiah 66 caravans of camels will shall fill you dromedaries from Midian and ephah all from Sheba which shall come bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the law so Matthew's riding what is riding about the wise men and their gifts because they fulfilled these prophecies Gentiles coming and bringing gifts and acknowledging them as sight Jesus as the Messiah anyway tradition tells us not scripture tradition tells us and it's a small tea tradition I wouldn't call it apostolic tradition it's just you know something that's been passed on piously over the centuries the names of these three wise men as I said they're not kings I think that's more of a 19th century Christmas Carol than actual traditional scripture it was important though that this Messiah was coming for the Jews through the Jews but also for everyone else in the world we needed to show that he was acknowledged by Gentile peoples because he was coming for Gentile peoples as well the names we have Caspar Melchior and Balthazar come from extra biblical traditions we have the documents documents that come from the sixth century Greek documents translated then later into Latin the excerpt our latina Bob Ari another document collect Anna collect an ayah or excerpted collect an ayah they continue this idea of the three wise men and gives us clues about their identity so this document I read out the name property now excerpt it collect an ayah Melchior according to this document was actually from Arabia now I can see that this document is the source that tells us that they were Kings because milk your was a king of Arabia had long gray beard and gave gold as a gift symbolizing that he accepted Christ is king and Baltazar was king of Ethiopia middle-aged bearded and he brought the gift of frankincense to recognize that Jesus was a priest and Kaspar was the younger of the three and he came from Tarsus the same town as some Paul in Southeast Asia Minor and he brought nerve and myrrh was used to make medicines to symbolize that Jesus came as a doctor as a healer all right you don't have to accept anything from this document as late as a six century perhaps it's based largely on legend but I like the symbolism gold Franca's gold frankincense and myrrh those three gives together paint us a picture of Jesus and his mission he was a king also a priest from the house of David so he's a king the King of Kings and he's a priest offering a sacrifice of himself and that will bring healing to the nations and of course the whole point of the whole story of these Kings who are really wise men again back to the scripture m'goi magicians astrologers astronomers etc this reinforces the whole custom of gift-giving a Christmas time and the tradition of Carol singing has as ancient as ancient origins I told you I argue that the angels appear in on the on the birth at the time when Jesus was born was the type of Christmas Carol glory to God in the highest I mean we do incorporate those words into Christmas carols from the fourth century of sin Ambrose when it was Bishop with Archbishop of Milan he apparently composed a hymn venire a damned or gen see'em come Redeemer of the peoples of the Gentiles but that was that was a Christmas Carol but it was also an apologetic or statement against Arianism which denied the divinity of Christ we get another Christmas Carol in the early 5th century from the Spanish poet Prudentius a titled Cordain artists ex parentis out of the Father's heart begotten and that was in being sung in churches in the early 5th century but in the modern sense carols exploded as a popular expression of of our faith around Christmastime actually from England and Protestant England in the 19th century or gain more popularity in traction in Protestant countries Lutheran countries and from the 19th century onwards in English in England etc and it's a it's a beautiful tradition that we need to maintain again that's one of those traditions it's under stress when it comes to Christmas Christmas is under stress because of secularization and commercialization and I'll and I'll lead now on to that point in that issue because yeah I'm talking about what's true and beautiful and good about Christmas but there's some disturbing movements here we have to look at you know the fact that we have gifts given a Christmas is probably a blessing and a curse it's a blessing because you know it's better to give than to receive so it's a good Christian act to do so also commercialization commercialization can help preserve Christmas at least on the calendar as an event someone was just telling me the other day the obvious you know as as society becomes more secular well Christmas is under grave threat but they're never gonna really abolish Christmas totally because they need it for business it's true so my argument is because business is going to need it for good business their peak sales period etc we need to piggyback on it and add the Jesus bit to it keep the Jesus flavor into it that reminds me of another story of a friend of mine when he was in a shopping center he was once going down an escalator and those a nativity scene there you know that Jesus Mary Joseph nativity scene with sheep and goats norm and one woman was angrily mumbling under her breath odd people that there always some people have to push religion into everything forgetting the fact that Christmases origins are religious strictly speaking but now we're in the position where we have to piggy back it's going to stay as a commercial event and now it's become post Christmas silence and the Melbourne to hope Hobart sorry Sydney to Hobart rice and the Melbourne Test cricket match and all okay that's but there's there embedded in the calendar and therefore we can take advantage of that to piggyback on it and keep the Christian flavor into it so commercialization has that benefit because it entrenches this day in the calendar it won't totally disappear but the threat of commercialization is that it's mutating the event and it's done it subtly over the last hundred years or so now a lot of things about the commercial secular side of Christmas pretty harmless and again we've got Santa Claus and you notice what I talked about Sir Nicholas I didn't mention Santa Claus I mentioned the original Saint Nicholas he was a true historical figure and he was a very generous man and it helped build that tradition within Christmas of gift-giving but Santa Claus comes in the scene around 1920 as an American commercial figure to promote coca-cola all right and okay he's a big jolly man in a red suit and that would tell us that his origins if you know anything you can do a bit of research that this is a derivation or a corruption of the other man in a red vestments a bishop his hand of course the original Santa Nicholas was a bishop so Stan of course for me is a harmless figure I have no problem here in the fight I was Santa but I can't sit on his knee anymore and but my kids have always had would have stopped now but they always had enough growing years pictures with Santa and I have no problem with it but it is one step removed it's big it's the first step towards that rampant secularization we suffer from today say with a good Christmas Carol like Bing Crosby's I'm dreaming of a white Christmas it's it's become traditional and it's beautiful and Hollywood's promoted it and we all loved hearing animals play it at home every Christmas but does it really focus or mention anywhere Jesus Christ no nice soothing beautiful inspirational but Jesus isn't mentioned so it's another step of way then of course you get Santa's little helpers up in the North Pole you know the elves busily away working that's all cute we want our toys on time keep working we love to hear about the elves it's nice story you tell the kids Santa up there in North Pole sharing next door to Superman's house down then in the North Pole okay Superman is the hero you want to believe in when you don't believe in Jesus Christ that's how I look at it okay he's the superhero for those who are looking for salvation or inspiration or Hope which is really found in Jesus Christ then you've got Rudolph and his reindeer and I Santa's up there needs his team of helpers he needs a delivery system you know it's Rudolph from the Red Nosed flashing away okay and of course it's not gonna have this Paul X Bishop Singlish you've got to have mrs. Claus now because Santa Clauses and I don't want to be offensive it's and of course has become Anglican so he can marry and they've got mrs. Claus and okay and then Frosty the Snowman turns up and okay now none of these things are inherently bad but it's a trajectory it's a ten densha lism the tendency the movement away so younger generations grow up they don't know about really Jesus is at the core of it when I'm growing up and I'd still do it even today even this Christmas Eve I would love to pull out little drummer boy and watch it even though it's a fable it's a story it's not historical it's not scriptural its focus on Jesus Christ and that's okay that's fine that's beautiful and I'm watching I was watching it from the age of four or five onwards and I'll still watch it those other cartoons you know they're harmless as I said but they're making us think get off focus we're not on focus that it's about Jesus Christ but it's getting worse just last year had that Jennifer Aniston movie come out the office Christmas party and I hope none of you saw it good because we can't fund this type of activity but office Christmas - okay arts about Christmas great let's watch it well what is it about they're told the workers are told not to call it a Christmas party instead call it a nondenominational holiday mixer because more inclusive because they recognize Christmas - Christian - Catholic that's exclusive you know just call it something else that's you know takes away from its original meaning that is around Jesus Christ it inclusive of everyone and everything in all beliefs but in this in this movie have Christ mocked you he's nativity mocked you have a curse in Santa who knocks down a nativity scene you have a movie filled with bad language curses and profanities and we call this a Christmas movie now just the other day I'm driving and do a lot of driving and my work from parish to parish school to school and fellow who's got a slot on 2gb radio station was actually be wailing what's happening or what's been happening very recently in Kmart Kmart is not calling it Christmas Day they're calling it the calling Boxing Day Boxing Day and they're calling New Year's Day New Year's Day but they're not calling Christmas Day Christmas Day they're calling it family day and that's the next step towards D Christianization what's our response our response so just to sum up now is to keep what's good and true and beautiful about Christmas in its place you do that firstly in your hearts in your minds remembering always not forgetting the obvious so that's about Jesus Christ and have that spread to your immediate family and show that at home showered in the Christmas decorations showed in the Christmas tree Sheldon the nativity set showed in the outdoor lights that you have it became very popular in the last couple of decades following a trend in the United States to cover our houses with Christmas decorations I was beautiful the most part it was a form of you know subtle neighborly evangelization sure you can have you Santa Clauses and your heavy reindeers but a lot of people had the nativity scenes out there a lot of them had the Jesus and Mary lights angel lights all that star Bethlem etc and that was that's keeping it public Christmas keeping that aspect alive and that's that's what we have to do don't buy it Santa Claus Christmas cards buy Nativity Christmas cards give them out preserve these little traditions preserve and also extend Christmas beyond December 25 you know it's so obvious now as soon as December 25 is over we shut Christmas down in the public mind we go straight to the Boxing Day sales go straight to the Test match in Melbourne we go straight to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race as I mentioned earlier you guys straight into sport and then we go straight into the revelry of New Year's Day and Christmases come and gone in a flash and that and it's we're keeping it there because it's going to make us a lot of money we have to keep it there because it's gonna make us a lot of salvation that's the most important point and on that point I'll wrap it up thank you [Applause]

Channel: Dr Robert Haddad

Views: 2,989

Rating: 4.818182 out of 5

Keywords: Christmas, Robert Haddad, Catholic apologetics, Santa Claus, The Three Wise men, The Star of Bethlehem, Christmas trees, Bethlehem, Christmas Carols

Id: __NPnakrXxQ

Length: 75min 10sec (4510 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 14 2017