Browsing Homilies

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Is 9:1-6 | Ps 96 | Ti 2:11-14 | Lk 2:1-14

If we were to ask people what their favorite holiday is, most would say, “Christmas.” It doesn’t matter whether they practice their faith or even believe in Jesus. Christmas captures the wonder and imagination of most people in a way that isn’t true of other holidays. Why is that? Is it just because it’s a time to gather with family and friends? Is it the sense of tradition and nostalgia for the past; the lights and the festive music (some of us have been listening to since October).

Christmas is different because it speaks to the human heart in a way that no other holiday can. Christmas speaks to our need for joy. It speaks to our need for hope. Ultimately, Christmas speaks to our need for God.

All of us have a need for God, whether we recognize it or not. God is forever the missing piece in our heart. In the fourth century, Saint Augustine wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, my God.” In the 2017 musical/drama, The Greatest Showman, Jenny Lind’s song, “Never Enough,” captures this truth completely:

All the shine of a thousand spotlights
All the stars we steal from the night sky
Will never be enough
Never be enough
Towers of gold are still too little
These hands could hold the world but it’ll
Never be enough
Never be enough

Nothing this world offers can substitute for God, even our relationships with others (to which Jenny Lind was singing). Husbands, wives: let your spouse off the hook! The day each of you realizes he or she cannot be your ultimate fulfillment, the two of you are going to be a whole lot happier. The next time they screw up royally, just remind yourself, “Oh, I forgot, they’re not God!”

Or name an addiction: that person is searching for God. Why is it never enough? Why doesn’t it ever satisfy? Food, drink, success, pornography, sinful and harmful habits. Why do we always return to it? Why is it so difficult for there to be a “last time?” While we’re able to distract ourselves from our need, for God, we can never escape it. We yearn for friendship, intimacy with God.

We all know Linus’ blue security blanket. He carries it around with him everywhere. He never lets go of it – except once: when he explains the true meaning of Christmas. As soon as he says, For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, he drops it, using both hands to explain the miracle of why we’re here today.

This is the need that Christmas speaks to!

On Christmas Day we celebrate an historic event: God Himself became man in Jesus Christ. God steps forward to meet this need of the human heart by offering His very self in the person of Jesus Christ. He makes Himself small so that we can pick Him up, hold Him close, and love Him.

No other religion offers us this possibility of a relationship with God as Christianity does. No other religion even claims to be able to put us in touch with our Creator. Other faith traditions have some truths that might inspire us. But Christianity offers us Jesus Christ who is Truth itself. Other religions might offer us some insights into God that inspire us, but only Christianity can reveal God Himself to us. Only Jesus can bring God to the world because He is God translated into human flesh. Jesus Christ, the baby born on Christmas Day, is God Himself made visible for all the world to see!

When we welcome this defenseless baby into our hearts and homes, we are welcoming God Himself. By doing so, we discover what our hearts have been yearning for. We discover that unnamed or disordered desire that had been driving us for so long. In this baby, our souls find refreshment, light, and peace.

Christmas Day is not just an historic event that we commemorate every year. Rather, it’s a reality that renews itself daily in our world. Every day, God makes Himself small so that we can receive Him into our hearts. It happens whenever we gather for Mass. At every Mass, Jesus Christ makes himself present to us in a real way through the bread and wine that become his Body and Blood. We believe that Holy Communion is not just a symbol of Jesus’ presence among us but that it is the reality. He is truly present. When we receive the Eucharist, we are receiving Jesus. And when we receive Jesus, we receive God.

So, if God seems distant to you, if your heart yearns for Him yet you do not know where to find Him, then come to Mass. You will hear Him speak to you in the readings. You will see Him in the faces of the other people gathered to worship. And you will receive Him in Holy Communion. Just as Jesus made himself small so that he could be born in a stable in Bethlehem, so he makes himself small so that he can give himself to us in the Eucharist.

Jesus is the cure for what ails the human heart, and he makes himself available to us so that we can be healed and transformed. Sadly, many of us choose to look elsewhere for happiness. For countless reasons, people have stopped practicing the faith, and this has taken an enormous toll on society. People are filled with hopelessness and despair. Addictions and suicides are occurring at alarming rates. Our politics are more divisive and vicious than ever. Why? Because we have been seeking joy in everything else except the true source of joy, and it has left us disappointed and bitter.

However, our hope can be renewed in Jesus Christ. He is the light that continues to shine. When we turn to him, we discover the meaning of life and discover our value as children of God. And it really is as simple as coming to church every Sunday and receiving him in the Eucharist. Every human heart desires God and we cannot thrive until we welcome Him fully into our lives.

Let this Christmas be the day that changes you. If you have not been practicing your faith, if you were dragged here against your will, and/or you have a sense that something is missing in your life, then turn to that infant in the manger. He is what is missing. Don’t let another Christmas go by without discovering the true meaning of this beautiful holy day.

And if you already believe and have welcomed Jesus into your heart, then tell others about it. Don’t keep it to yourself. Why are we so quick to immediately share with the free world every meme and video off every social media platform, but then keep our faith to ourselves? And I don’t mean necessarily sharing with words, but by our actions. As a baptized person, are you different from the rest of the world; or are you just like everybody else? Believe me, I’ve lost my Christianity in traffic, at the post office, and at Walmart. But it’s in those precise moments that God and those around us should see us act and respond differently.

We’re all going to receive some incredible Christmas presents, and ultimately, we’re going to share them with others. We’re going to take pictures of the stuff we got and post it on everything for everyone to see. Why wouldn’t we do the same thing with the greatest gift of all: the love of the invisible God made visible in Jesus Christ?

#GreatestGift

It is this child whom we celebrate this day. It is this child who will make himself present to us in Holy Communion. And it is this child who asks us to bring his light into this dark and fallen world.

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