What irony: we invoke the death of our lord even as we celebrate his birth. “Merry Christmas” is a celebration of the incarnation, while the Mass signifies his death. Such is the mystery of faith. Wangerin says it well in Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom:

“Your Savior is born. Your savior is here and very near. Nevermore shall you be ignorant of God and God’s deep love for you, because I will give you signs for finding that love. Look, he is a baby, wrapped in plain baby clothing, lying in the humblest of homes, a manger.

“Look: the beams of his stable will become the beams of a cross, and as he is born human, so shall he a human die. True death: a death like yours.

“But as he is also born the Son of God, so shall his death also kill the sin and everything that separates you from the throne of God. True death, the truest death: the death of death itself.”