MERRY CHRISTMAS! May the celebration of the Word of God being made flesh and dwelling among us in the birth of Jesus Christ bring His eternal love, His abundant joy, His heavenly peace to you and yours!
Here’s my homily for Christmas, which is based on the readings for the Mass of Christmas Day with the Gospel Reading comes from St. John. They can be found here: https://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/122509c.shtml
If pollsters, those companies and firms that interview people to get their opinions are correct, then many, people aren’t feeling very“Merry” this Christmas. For example this one poll last week talked about how there’s a record level of pessimism with less than 27 % of those interviewed saying they believed things would be better for their children than it has been for them. Over 60% agreed with the statement that they believed that the nation was in a state of decline.
There’s a lot of reasons offered for these negative feelings – the economy, two ongoing wars, other global concerns, the economy. There’s an awful lot of things on our minds. And just hearing that many people around us are worried, that has the ability to deflate us and make us even more worried, concerned or pessimistic than we were before.
I have to admit, just talking to family, friends, and other people, those polls seem to ring true. People seem pretty down. And if we could put aside these national or global concerns, many have their own worries, anxieties – right there, just beneath the surface. The woman who talks about feeling completely alone (even though she’s married) The man who is seriously giving thought to doing something he knows is wrong but is so tempted because he wants to feel something (and right now all he feels is numb) I’ve heard more than a few variations on those types of stories. Add stories of people who are battling life-threatening illnesses, or those who have lost someone this Christmas – it’s understandable why there seems to be wide-spread pessimism.
I know – geez Father – Merry Christmas!
I don’t share all this to bring everybody down. My gut tells me that’s where a lot of us are coming together this Christmas day, 2009. And with a week until the new year, people work very hard to burry or mask these depressing thoughts for a day or so, to try to have a “Merry Christmas” and hope to get through this week. Next week, we will watch a ball in Times Square waiting for the New Year hoping that somehow 2010 has to be better.
Just thinking about these things, I was reminded of a particularly difficult Christmas season a couple of years ago, that I felt pretty pessimistic myself. It had been a rough year for my family and I. My goddaughter was suffering through a serious health crisis (and by extension, my brother, sister-in-law, and entire family suffered with her) which was coming after a year that was marked by unexpected deaths, trials and losses. As the Christmas music, decorations and sounds, smells and sights of the season seemed to intensify with each passing day (even in the lobby of a Children’s Hospital) I really felt the gap between joyfully entering into the season and the complex realities of life that were all around.
One afternoon, numbed by these thoughts after mindlessly surfing the internet jumping from website to website, I came upon some words that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI shared in a homily. He explained that the Church could sum up this season with just two words: ‘God comes.’ And he went on to explain that in that short little expression, those two words contain this new, evocative power about them. Because the great news we celebrate is that we’re not talking in the past tense like —God has come, and we’re not simply hopefully awaiting some far off future promise like —God will come, but in the present—‘God comes.’ He explained that the more we sit with that thought, we realize that this is a continuous present, an ever-continuous action: it happened, it is happening now and it will happen again. In every moment, ‘God comes.’ – Benedict XVI (Dec. 2006)
I remember sitting there in that Hospital lobby and the simplicity and power of those words had a beautifully calming and healing effect. In the pains we endure – God comes. In the trials and stresses we face that seem insurmountable – God comes.
That’s why we celebrate Christmas. The day when everything got better for all of us, in every age, in every situation, for all eternity. Hearing this Gospel reading kind of throws people who come for Christmas Mass. John’s Gospel isn’t as familiar, it’s a bit difficult to listen to – particularly if we’re looking to hear the familiar, real story of Christmas. But there’s a brilliant reason we’ve just heard proclaimed what we heard. The Church gives us this reading on Christmas to move us beyond Bethlehem, to move us away from the crib.
Because too often we get stuck there. We remain transfixed on the Nativity. We stay with a remembrance of a historical fact of the man Jesus being born. But the Church doesn’t want us to remain in Bethlehem remembering that God came.
Christmas is meant to cause us to rejoice with the Shepherds that the Word of God, JESUS has become Flesh.
Christmas is meant to make our hearts want to join the song of the Angels that God has made his dwelling among us.
Christmas inspires hope within us to search with the wonder, faith and trust of the wise men, even when He feels so distant and far away, knowing in our heart of hearts that He will be found, because God comes.
To a nation and a world that is seemingly consumed with tension, and anxiety; in the less-than perfect situations that all of us have to deal with in our lives, may the true meaning, the true beauty of Christmas eclipse those realities, with the ever ancient, ever new, ever present words of good news of “great joy for all people” – – God comes.
