Good morning & Merry Christmas!!! What a joyous morning it is. It’s joyous because a child has been born for us. Today we celebrate the coming of baby Jesus into this world and into our lives. Yes, we celebrate with gifts, with food and wine, but it is more rightfully a day of worship, and a day of reverence. Today, a quiet and peaceful stillness comes over us and the real meaning of Christmas is allowed to emerge from behind all the gifts, the food and all the frantic preparations. Today we’re able to experience the deeper joy that God offers at Christmas. We celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ; and we celebrate the love that God has for us. God gave himself to us in the birth of a child; and that birth changed everything for mankind. God’s self-expression and his love are now present to us in our humanity, in our human nature. Because of Christ we know that God is near; and not only near, but has become one with us and has become part of us. With Christ, humanity and divinity have joined to become one. God’s outpouring of love for us enables us, in turn, to share that love and grace with our family and friends on this day. That’s the type of giving that really matters today. And the gift of our love back to God is all that he wants in return.
We come to Church to listen to the Word of God, to celebrate the Eucharist, to reverence the Christ Child displayed in the crib and to pray to God for peace in the world and in our homes. It’s a day to on which we think of others, especially those less fortunate than ourselves.
Two thousand years ago no one could have imagined that God would send his Son, the Messiah, to us in the form of an infant to be born in the humblest of beginnings.
As we gaze at the manger that we have set up, we’re reminded of the circumstances surrounding the birth of baby Jesus. Because there was no room for Mary and Joseph at the inn, baby Jesus was born in what we would call a barn, a place for farm animals, with very little shelter from the cold. This makes us wonder why God chose this kind of environment to be born into. Surely as our King, he deserved better. But this is what he wanted. This was his way of teaching us that holiness is found in poverty, in humility, and in servitude.
Through this humble birth, the shepherds were privileged to visit and adore baby Jesus. Had Jesus been born as a king in a palace, only the rich and famous would have been able to approach him. But Jesus didn’t come for just the rich and the famous. He
came into this world for all of us, including you and me.
As we see baby Jesus in the manger, we reflect on God’s way being a way of gentleness and tenderness. God’s way is not one of violence, but gentleness. As we look on baby Jesus in the manger we can see that he is the answer to today’s problems. Instead of violence, in baby Jesus in the manger we see gentleness. Instead of hatred, in baby Jesus in the manger we see tenderness. Instead of selfishness, in baby Jesus in the manger we see love for us. Jesus in the manger gives us hope.
Had Jesus not come, we would all experience a spiritual death at the end of our earthly lives, because our souls have been stained by the original sin of Adam. But now, through our faith in Jesus as our Messiah and the Sacrament of Baptism, we receive the heavenly gifts of the new birth, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and inheritance into the Body of Christ. None of these gifts would have been possible had Jesus not come into our lives.
On this special day, by the grace of God, we should all be glowing with a spirit of joy and peace. This great inner joy and peace is different than what we normally enjoy during the year. There is something special about this spiritual joy and peace. Let us cherish it. Throughout the year we should always strive to draw upon this very special spiritual manifestation of Jesus so we may continue to enjoy it over and over again.
In our hearts, we know that there is something very different today. Baby Jesus is really present with us here. So is the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, and all the saints and endless angels. All are commemorating the birth of Jesus. Today we are surrounded by the divine light of love that is intended to unite us all closer and closer as one within the invisible Mystical Body of Christ.
In this morning’s Gospel we hear, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” That is what today is about. When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the great love of God for us all which leads us to our redemption. There could be no greater cause for rejoicing than this, that the infant Jesus appears among us to bring us healing and salvation. He comes to show us the love of the Father for us all and to bring each one of us, with our sins forgiven, to new life with God in heaven.