Christmas

 

December 25, 2021

 

 

+  Last night at Mass, I mentioned that I’m a church geek.

 

You know how you know I’m a church geek?

 

Because one of my greatest pleasures in life is doing the Christmas morning Mass.

 

Yes, I know.

 

Christmas Eve is beautiful.

 

Really beautiful.

 

But Christmas morning.

 

I don’t know.

 

It’s just just…something so very special.

 

I think that is what Christmas Day is all about.

 

This sense of it all being just…a bit more holy and complete.

 

For me, that captures perfectly this strange feeling I have experiencing this morning how I LOVE a Christmas Day mass

 

And now—this morning— Christmas is here.

 

This morning, we celebrate the Light.

 

And we celebrate the Word.

 

Our Gospel reading for today is one of my favorites.

 

In it we hear:

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

 

In the beginning, God was at work in our lives.

 

God was speaking to us form the beginning

 

And God continued to speak to us.

 

 

Today, we celebrate this Word that has been spoken to us—this Word of hope.

 

This Word that God is among us.

 

When we think long and hard about this day, when we ponder it and let it take hold in our lives, what we realized happened on that day when Jesus was born was not just some mythical story.  

 

It was not just the birth of a child under dire circumstances, in some distant, exotic land.  

 

What happened on that day was a joining together—a joining of us and God.

 

God met us half-way.

 

God came to us in our darkness, in our blindness, in our fear—and cast a light that destroyed that darkness, that blindness, that fear.

 

God shed Light on us.

 

And God—in the Word—spoke to us.

 

In both ways, God reached out to us.

 

 God didn’t have to do what God did.  

 

But by doing so, God showed us a remarkable intimacy.

 

But, how do we respond to God’s reaching out to us?

 

We respond by being the ones through whom God is born again and again in this world.

 We need to bring God into reality in this world again and again.

 We need to be the conduits through which God comes to this world.

 We need to be God’s Light

 We need to speak God’s Word of love.

 Why?

 Because God is a God of love.

 Because we are loved by God.

 Because we are accepted by God.

 Because we are—each of us—important to God.

 We are, each of us, broken and imperfect as we may be some times, very important to God.

 Each of us.

 And because we are, we must love others.

 We must give birth to our God so others can know this amazing love as well.

 Knowing this amazing love of God changes everything.

 When we realize that God knows us as individuals.

 That God loves us and accepts each of us for who we are, we are joyful.

 We are hopeful of our future with that God.

 And we want to share this love and this God with others.

 That is what we are celebrating this morning.

 Our hope and joy is in a God who comes and accepts us and loves us for who we are and what we are—a God who understands what it means to live this sometimes frightening uncertain life we live.

 This is the real reason why we are joyful and hopeful on this beautiful morning.

 This is why we are feeling within us a strange sense of longing.

 This is why we are rushing toward our Savior who has come to visit us in what we once thought was our barrenness.

 Let the hope we feel tonight as God our Savior draws close to us stay with us now and always.

 Let the joy we feel tonight as God our Friend comes to us in love be the motivating force in how we live our lives throughout this coming year.

 God is here.

 God is in our midst today.

 God is so near, our very bodies and souls are rejoicing.

 And God loves us.

 That is what we are experiencing this day.

 

In Christ, God’s Love came to us.

 

In Christ, God’s Love became flesh and blood.

 

In Christ, God’s Love became human.

 

And in the face of that realization, we are rejoicing today.

 

We are rejoicing in that love of God personified.

 

We are rejoicing in each other.  

 

We are rejoicing in the glorious beauty of this one holy moment in time.

 

So, let us rejoice.

 

And let us be glad.

 

God is with us.

 

And it is very good!

 

Let us pray.

 

Holy God, you are with us. You are present in our midst. And we rejoice in the Presence for which we have longed for for so long. Fill us this morning with true joy, with true hope, so that we can share this joy and hope with others. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.