“Peace upon earth!” was said. We sing it
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We've got as far as poison-gas.
‘Mass’ is the Roman Catholic name for the Eucharist. 
 
 In 1924, it’d been about 2000 years since the birth of Christ. 
 Why does Hardy use the Roman Catholic name? Why, to set up a dope-ass rhyme of course…
Christmas: 1924