12/24/2014 – Christmas Eve – Mass during the Night - Luke 2:1-14, Isaiah 9:1-6, Isaiah 9:1-6

       First of all, we would like to welcome everyone to our Eucharistic celebration tonight as we celebrate our Savior’s birth.  Christmas is a time when we get many visitors and guests and out-of-town family members here at mass who we don’t see regularly each week.  We want to welcome those of you who are visitors or from out-of-town to our Catholic community here in Tupelo - St James.  We hope that all of you feel the warm welcome that is extended to everyone.

       Christmas is one of the celebrations we Christians look forward to celebrating in our liturgical year.   We have been preparing for the four weeks of the Advent season for the coming of this day – this show how important this day is to us in our faith.  We have been preparing with hope and joy and great expectation, because we knew that this day would bring the birth of our Savior into the world.  But, it is hard to focus on what Christmas really means to us in our faith, since the Christmas message has been taken over by our secular world in many ways. 

        The prophet Isaiah starts out his proclamation in our first reading by saying: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  We don’t have to look very far to see darkness in our world, do we?  We turn on the news and we see hackers trying to take down businesses on the internet, we see violence and demonstrations, we see countries going through political or economic crisis, and we hear of Americans hostages in the Middle East being executed by ISIS.  With all that's going on in the world, and the things going on in our lives, we might wonder what difference the Good News of Christmas might make in our lives this year.

        It sounds like there was a lot going on in the world at the time of Jesus’ birth.   He was born in the outskirts of the Roman Empire, in an area seen as poor and insignificant.  He was born to a young woman, Mary.  She was not a princess or from a powerful family in that society.  There was a census being taken, so Mary and Joseph had to travel to the city of his ancestors – Bethlehem – the city of David.  And this little baby was not born in a great palace or a mansion.  He wasn’t even born in a humble family house. 

E. This little child was born in a stable, in a manger, in the trough where the animals ate.  Most people did not even notice his birth.   The birth of the Christ child is first announced to the world after his birth in the words of the Angel:  “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”  And the news in not announced to the governor or the chief priests or the wealthy businessmen in the society.  The news is announced to shepherds who are in the midst of watching their flocks in the middle of the night.

       It did not seem like the world was listening to the message of Christ’s birth on the night when he was born.  And by all that is going on in the world right now, by the darkness and violence and chaos that we see, perhaps we don’t see the world paying attention to this message in our own day.  The angels sang: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.  We sing the words of the Gloria tonight as well, words that we have not sung during the four Sundays in Advent, so those words are very special and meaningful tonight.

        On Christmas Even in 1992 – 22 years ago – I was a missionary working in the inner city of Winnipeg, Canada.   I served at a Christmas dinner at a soup kitchen, where the poorest of the poor of that city gathered to celebrate the birth of the Savior.  Many of them were heroin addicts or prostitutes or people whose lives had spiraled out of control through addictions to alcohol or drugs.  Most of them lived on the streets or in squalid residential hotels.  Daily survival was very difficult for them, especially in a cold, wintery place like Winnipeg.  This rundown soup kitchen was a grimy, dirty place, but I felt a sense of joy and hope and community in this place as we celebrated Christmas together, as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.  We can see the light of Christ in some unexpected places.  We will find the hope and joy of the Gospel in some unexpected places as well.   We are called to recognize that light, wherever it may be, especially in those unexpected place, especially in those place that seem abandoned or condemned by our secular world.

       Mary – Joseph – John the Baptist – they all did their part to make a path for Christ in their lives and in the world.  They all said “yes” to God.  God relies on all of us to do our part to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to the world, to bring his light to those unexpected places.  Pope Francis has said that to bring Christ to our world, we must bring the love of Christ as well.  It is a love that shares.  It is a love that forgives.  It is a love that accompanies.  It is a love that isn’t watered down.  Let us feel the light of Christ entering the world tonight.  And let us be that light.