CHRISTMAS HOMILY (FOR ALL MASSES) – YEAR - “C”–
We shall keep Christ and share Christ in this Christmas
(For Vigil Mass-Children’s Mass) Today's liturgy offers the option to read a longer or shorter form of the Gospel. If we read the longer form, we hear Matthew recount the ancestry of Jesus. This genealogy sets Jesus' birth within the context of the history of Israel, highlighting two of Jesus' ancestors—Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, and David, the most important king of Israel. Jesus' ancestral lineage reinforces a central theme of Matthew's Gospel: Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies made to the people of Israel.
(For Midnight Mass) During the Christmas season, our liturgy invites us to consider the birth of the Lord from many vantage points. As we begin this season, it is useful to remember that the stories of Jesus' birth and childhood are found in only two of our Gospels, Matthew and Luke. Throughout this season, we will hear stories from both Gospels. Those Gospels tell different but complementary stories about Jesus' birth, highlighting items of theological importance about the Incarnation and the salvation that Jesus brings. On this day, the Feast of Christmas, we are given the details of Christ's birth as found in the Gospel of Luke.
(For Day Mass) Four Masses are celebrated for the feast of Christmas, and each is given its own set of readings to help us contemplate Christ's birth. The Gospel for the vigil Mass on Christmas Eve is taken from the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. The Mass at midnight proclaims the birth of Jesus using the Gospel of Luke. The Mass at dawn on Christmas morning continues the story of the birth of Jesus as found in Luke's Gospel through the shepherds' visit to the infant Jesus. In each of these Gospel readings, we hear portions of the Infancy Narratives with which we are familiar. The Gospel for the Christmas Mass during the day is taken from the beginning of John's Gospel, but this Gospel is not an Infancy Narrative like those found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Instead, John's Gospel begins at the beginning, as it were, and presents the Creation story as the framework for announcing the Incarnation.
(For all Masses) Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, true God and true man, as a baby in Bethlehem. The Infancy Narratives of St. Matthew and St. Luke form the basis of the Christmas celebration.
Long ago, a wise and good king ruled in Persia. He loved his people and wanted to know how they lived. He wanted to know about their hardships. So he dressed himself in the clothes of a peasant and went to the homes of the poor. No one whom he visited suspected that he was their king. One of them was a very poor man who lived in a cellar. The king ate his coarse food with him and cheered him up. Then he left. Later he visited the poor man again and disclosed his identity. The king thought the man would ask for some gift or favor, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the coarse food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you may have given rich gifts. But to me you have given yourself!”
Christmas means sharing and expressing love for one another, doing and saying things one does not get around to doing the rest of the year.
At Christmas we celebrate the king of kings leaving his divine glory and coming to our dearly world to share with us our poverty, misery and pain. It is not a question of Jesus giving us any particular gifts or blessings; it is a question of him giving us himself. This is the big difference between Jesus and Santa Claus. Santa Claus rides in an open sleigh giving gifts to children who have been good, so long as their houses have got chimneys. Santa leaves the gifts on the Christmas tree and disappears. Christ, on the other hand, does not leave a gift and disappear. He comes to live with us. He comes to share our human condition. His very presence is the gift.
And, as the poor man in our story knows, being with the king is far more satisfying than receiving a gift from him. Today we find ourselves in the same position as the poor man being visited by his king. Like the poor man our hearts should be full of joy, not in the extra gift the king will give us but in the fact that the king has come to be with us, to become one of us.
When we talk about how the eternal Son of God left his heavenly glory, took on flesh and became a human being like us in all things except sin, we use the word “incarnation.” This is the mystery we celebrate at Christmas. It is the mystery of how the eternal Word of God took flesh in the little child of Bethlehem.
One thing that is associated with the celebration of Christmas everywhere is giving. Christmas is the feast of giving. Christmas is the one time in the year when everyone is sure to give and receive a present. Christmas is a feast of giving even from God’s point of view. For at Christmas we celebrate the mystery that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). God gives, and the people of God give, and that is Christmas.
If Christmas is the feast of giving, then the questions are: Are we willing to accept and receive? Are we willing to give or share at this Christmas? (1) Are we ready and willing to receive Jesus the greatest gift ever given in the whole history of the humanity. This is the everlasting gift that will never disappear but remain with us forever. In other words, are we willing to keep Christ in Christmas? Let us receive Jesus and keep Him in this Christmas and all the days of our life. (2) Are we truly willing to give and share our gifts that the Lord has given with others, the poor and the needy? Please remember that God so loved the world that he gave his only son – God’s love is unconditional – gave in fullness for our salvation his son Jesus which we celebrate. So Christmas is the celebration and the feast of giving our time and talents with others who are in need.
Though we may not all have the resources to share with our less fortunate brethren, let us remember them in our prayers and masses this Christmas Day and let us extend little acts of kindness that will help them feel loved and cared for in this very important Christian celebration. For after all, we are God’s people and our Father in Heaven looks at all of us equally. So we shall keep Christ and share Christ in this Christmas. Merry Christmas!