We have just listened to the story of the birth of Jesus: “The Greatest Story Ever Told”.  Mary and Joseph, angels and shepherds, sheep and oxen, a miraculous birth: we know the story so well. Throughout history, in virtually every culture that the Gospel message has penetrated, people have been so moved by this story, that they can never only “tell” the story: they act it out, they paint it, they carve it, and most of all … they sing it, in a thousand different songs. Though the story is old, in every generation, we find new ways of singing the ancient mystery, new stories to give expression to “the greatest story ever told”.

THE PEOPLE THAT WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT. For hundreds of years, the people of Israel experienced a “long winter” – though that’s not something we can complain about yet this year!  They had known slavery in Egypt; then, after liberation and a short time of prosperity, they became internally divided. They were successively conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans.  Throughout this period, they knew tyranny and oppression. 

Through all this, a promise sustained them as God’s chosen people: that God would send the Messiah, an anointed King, to deliver them from the yoke of oppression: “For unto us a child is born, a son is given, and he is named Wonderful-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Everlasting-Father, Prince-of-Peace.” This hope, their belief that God was faithful to his Covenant, was what kept them going. 

Just as the Jewish people longed for a light to scatter the darkness, so too did their Roman occupiers experience a similar longing. They celebrated the pagan feast of sol invictus – “the invincible sun” on December 25^th: at the very moment when the nights are longest and darkest, the return of the sun and the steady lengthening of the days would remind them that in the end, light and warmth overpower cold and darkness.  Hope springs eternal. 

The early Church chose to celebrate Jesus’ birth at the very same time as this pagan feast.  Why?  Because Jesus also comes as a light in the darkness.  He comes as “the Sun of Justice”, as the “Prince of Peace,” as the Light of the World: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  Into this world Jesus came.  Not in power and majesty, but in poverty and vulnerability. God comes among us a tiny baby, poor and vulnerable, embodied in breathing, suckling, crying human flesh.  God comes to us as our baby to bear: abandoned on the doorstep of time, wondered at by cattle and oxen, visited by shepherds and Magi.

In his letter announcing 2016 as an “Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy,” Pope Francis proclaims:

Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy! These words sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him. The Father, “rich in mercy”, having revealed his name to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” reveals throughout history, his divine nature. In the “fullness of time”, when everything had been arranged according to his plan of salvation, he sent his only Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, to reveal his love for us in a definitive way. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father.  Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person reveals the mercy of God.

We need so much to contemplate the mystery of Divine Mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy reveals the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.

Mercy is the path by which God comes to meet us. Mercy dwells in the heart of every person who looks into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the journey of life. Mercy is the bridge that connects God and humanity. Mercy opens our hearts to the hope of being loved unconditionally and eternally, and to the possibility of loving our neighbour as Christ has loved us, laying down his life for us. 

Has there ever been a time in human history when this message of divine mercy – of a love which is strong, faithful, compassionate, unconditional, all-forgiving, all-embracing, infinite, and eternal – has more needed to be proclaimed and lived?  To celebrate Christmas is to enter into the mystery of mercy!  It is more than just the birth of a baby – however wonderful and miraculous that is, in its own way.  Christmas is about a God who chooses to become one of us, who empties himself of power, who shares our vulnerability.  For even today, in the dark and cold of our world, God comes to us helpless, as our baby to bear: in the refugee and the stranger, in the one who is hungry, sick, homeless, imprisoned, oppressed or marginalized in any way. In these, we meet the real presence of Christ: “Truly, I tell you: whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you do for me.” 

So why do we celebrate Christmas? Is it just another way of bolstering a sagging economy? Is it an excuse to get together with family and friends whom we more or less ignore the rest of the year? Or is it because at least once a year, we need to be reminded of what God has done and been for us, in the person of Jesus Christ? Theologians call this the Incarnation: that in Jesus of Nazareth, God took on human flesh. It’s not just a dogma of faith to be accepted. It’s a mystery to which we are invited to entrust ourselves. It reminds us that our God is not a distant, cold, faraway figure – someone who wound up the universe and walked away.  It means that God understands all the pain and struggle and mess we deal with in our lives, because he embraced it himself, he lived it with us and for us.  In the words of Pope Francis, it is the belief that in the child of Bethlehem, we see the human face of God’s infinite love and mercy.

We gather in Church this evening (morning). This is something whose significance we should not underestimate.  In our secular society, many of our contemporaries (even those who still self-identify as Catholic or Christian) no longer bother with this ritual, seeing it as a relic from the past, or as something to be fitted into (time permitting) the more important cycle of parties, gift exchanges, and festive meals.  Yet we are here.  And it is good that we are here.  For whenever we gather in faith, in His Name, Jesus is truly and substantially present, just as much as when he came into the world in the Bethlehem stable, welcomed by a loving mother and protective father, visited by shepherds and kings.   Jesus is present in the Word we have just proclaimed, in the Eucharist we will celebrate, in the faces of children, in the poor and lowly of the world, in the refugees who arrive on our doorstep seeking a place of safety and welcome, in the hearts of all who seek God with a sincere heart. 

The true gift of Christmas comes when we can experience this presence of Christ deep within us, in the everyday realities of life.  Then Christmas is no longer just a beautiful story that happened long ago, in a far-off country, in someone else’s imagination.  Christmas becomes part of my life.  Christ comes to earth so that he might be born in my heart, in my family, in our city, our country, among our people, right here, right now.  With the birth of Jesus, human history entered into a new era.  No longer would war, sin, death, have the final word. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have become heirs to a promise: that no matter how much this world is marked by darkness and sin, the reign of Jesus, the Sun of Justice, the Prince of Peace, the Light of the World – will eventually triumph.

During this Year of Mercy, we are invited by Pope Francis to commit ourselves anew to the pilgrimage of faith: “Life itself is a pilgrimage, and we are all pilgrims travelling along the road, making our way to a desired destination.” It is easy to get lost on the way, to lose sight of the place to which we are headed, even to be tempted to give up the journey altogether. And yet, we persevere, in hope and trust – hoping that we are not alone, trusting that one greater than us walks beside us and guides our footsteps.

At Christmas, we tend to focus our attention on the infant Jesus, the poor and vulnerable child lying in the manger.  Yet it is important for us to grow into an adult relationship with an adult Christ. A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to make a pilgrimage in Italy on the footsteps of St. Francis. One of the places we visited was Greccio, the town where Francis established the tradition of the Christmas crèche in 1223. Although Francis had a profound love for the simplicity of the infant Jesus, he also knew that the Incarnation extended “from Crib to Cross,” that the child laid in a wooden box was the King who would one day be nailed to a Cross, that the infant placed in the animals’ feeding trough would feed the hungry multitudes, and ultimately give himself to us in the form of Bread and Wine at the Last Supper. It is a message which is beautifully captured in the contemporary Christmas song “Mary, Did You Know?” (choir will sing for us in a few moments, viral versions by Jordan Smith and Pentatonix; Kenny Rogers & Wynonna Judd):

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?

This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

 

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?

Did you know that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?

 

Mary, did you know …

The blind will see.  The deaf will hear. The dead will live again.

The lame will leap. The dumb will speak the praises of The Lamb.

 

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your Baby Boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?

The sleeping Child you're holding is the Great, I Am.

[Written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene]

 

Yes, Mary knew. They did not have foreknowledge of every detail of Jesus’ future life and ministry, but Mary and Joseph knew that this was no ordinary child. They knew that they had been chosen by God, whatever their own weaknesses and limitations, to raise this child to maturity, to help him grow in human and divine favour, to prepare him for his God-given mission.

Our families, however broken, dysfunctional, and scattered they may seem, also carry within them the seeds of holiness.  This point was beautifully made last September by Pope Francis, when during his pastoral visit to the USA, he spoke at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. To a crowd of over one million people gathered on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, he declared:

And where did God send his Son? To a palace, to a city, to an office building? No, God sent him to a family. God came into the world in a family. And he could do this because that family was a family with hearts open to love, a family whose doors were open.

This is my prayer for each one of us here tonight (today): that our own hearts, our homes, our families, our parishes, our city, our nation, our entire world may become a place where the presence of the living Christ is welcomed, honoured, and celebrated; whose doors and hearts are open to love; whose members are empowered to live as bearers of the hope, peace, and compassion embodied by Jesus, the Word made flesh, the human face of the Father’s mercy.  In the immortal words uttered 50 years ago by Linus Van Pelt in the first Peanuts’ Christmas special: “And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!” 

So in my own name, on behalf of Father Bertoli, Deacons Richard & Dennis, the pastoral team and parish staff, and all of us here at St. Monica’s, we wish you a peaceful and joyful Christmas, a happy and blessed New Year. May God’s unconditional love and tender mercy take root in your hearts and homes, and may his Son Jesus Christ make you angels of hope, love and mercy to all you meet.  Joyeux Noel! Buon Natale! Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!