Christmas Homily

Merry Christmas!

This night we begin our most joyous celebration of the Christmas season. On this most holy night we acknowledge the reality that God's love for us is so great that He has sent His Only Begotten Son to come and dwell among us. He who comes is the Word made Flesh and thus God has come to dwell among us in the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Due to the coming of Christ the world has been redeemed when He presented Himself upon the wood of the cross in atonement for our sin. Christ has come to lead us towards a true knowledge and acceptance of peace.

Our world is, very much so, in need of this peace which Christ has ushered into the world some 2,000 years ago. 2,015 years removed from this event we continue to see the results of a fallen world (war and senseless violence, people who are impoverished, and sin which disassociates  the human person as being created in the imagine and likeness of God the Father) and thus we come to acknowledge how it is Christ alone comes to calm every heart. Fear is a normal human emotion; we see that with the shepherds when the angel commanded them: "Be not afraid." Why are they to "be not afraid", but because "for today a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord."

This is the same reason why we should "be not afraid." This night was not only special in the past, but it continues to transcend both time and place and thus remains special for us here and now. It is for this reason that we gather here to not only keep Christ in Christmas, but to also keep the Mass in Christmas. Christ comes here within these Sacred Mysteries and He makes Himself known to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. It is here that He embraces each of us and tells us those words familiar not only extended to the shepherds who heard them from the voice of an angel, but to all of us who continue to hear these words proclaimed by Christ.

The shepherds may have been the first to hear the announcement of the Christmas message, but we despite our fear encounter this same angelic greeting. "For today a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord." From this we realize just like each of the shepherds that He who we come to approach is Christ our Lord. He extends from the crib His little hand and desires that we take ahold of it and except His loving embrace offered to us as He proclaims "be not afraid." We are too afraid that we are found to be weak and defenseless against our fears and struggles, but may we always remember what we come to encounter in the Christmas Crèche. For here we encounter Christ who is found small and lowly; here He is found to be defenseless and in need of the love and protection His mother, and yet He will, in time, triumph upon the cross and usher true peace into this world. This is the peace in which we are in search of and may we not be afraid in coming to accept this peace into our life.

May we come to trust in the Christmas message that has been proclaimed to us tonight. May the message which is contained here penetrate into our life. Through our experience with Christ in this most sacred season, may we be not afraid, but instead may we come to trust with the confidence of faith that "today a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord."