We want to welcome all of you to Christmas Day Mass this morning. We usually have some visitors and extended family members and out of town guests here with us for the holiday Masses. We want to extended a warm welcome to all of you at Holy Savior.
Yesterday, at the Christmas Eve Mass, we heard the traditional story of Christ’s birth from Luke’s Gospel, of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, of being turned away from the inn, of the angels proclaiming the good news of his birth, of the shepherds visiting the Christ child the stable. However, it is good to hear the Christmas story in a different way, which is why we hear from the first chapter of John’s Gospel on Christmas morning. Instead of hearing about Jesus born in the manger, we hear of Jesus as the eternal word of God, of the word of God becoming flesh and making its dwelling amongst us, of beholding his glory as the only begotten son of the Father, revealing God’s grace and truth.
Our celebration of Christmas is about Christ’s incarnation, of God coming to earth and taking on human bodily form, of the Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us, in the words of John’s Gospel. It is this theological miracle we honor when we recognize Christ’s birth in our celebration of the Christmas season. The weeks of Advent were a time of waiting, anticipation, and preparation for the joyful celebration to come. But Advent was more than waiting for the birth of baby Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. It is about the end days that will come in the culmination and fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation.
We hear of Jesus today as the word of God that existed in the beginning. If we go back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God initiates the work of creation by speaking things into existence through his word, by stating: “Let there be light.” Now, at Christmas, that word takes flesh through Christ’s birth. In our secular world, we have Christmas trees and Christmas lights everywhere, sometimes as early as the beginning of November, right after Halloween. But in the Catholic Church, the tree and the lights do not come out until Christmas Eve, when Christ the Light enters the world through his birth.
From Jesus’ birth in humble manger in a stable in an insignificant town outside of the places of power and wealth, the world saw that Jesus would be a servant and a friend of the poor and the marginalized. Not only did he assume human flesh, but he entered in humility and poverty. Yet, in humility and servanthood, he would be a light shining brightly in the world.
In 1992, I was serving as a missionary at a soup kitchen and food bank in Winnipeg, Canada. The Mennonite congregation in Winnipeg that helped sponsor my work asked me to speak at the Christmas Eve service at their church on the topic of how I experienced Christ the light in my life. Even in the midst of working with homeless people struggling to survive in a frigid Canadian winter, I very much felt the presence of Christ the light accompanying us in our ministry at the soup kitchen and food bank. Our journey of faith should always be about relationships: our relationship with God and our relationships with our brothers and sisters and the community. In those relationships, in no matter what else is going on in our lives, the light of Christ can burn brightly. I certainly felt that at the food bank and the soup kitchen.
I wish all of you and your families joy and peace as we celebrate the birth of our savior.
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