Christmas (Fr. Francis)
Merry Christmas! Our Advent preparations have been completed, and we are now invited by our Lord to enter the glorious celebration of His birth!
How well do you understand the awe-inspiring mystery of Christmas? How fully do you comprehend the significance of God becoming a human, born of a virgin? Though many are quite familiar with the beautiful and humble story of the birth of the Savior of the World, that familiarity can have the surprising negative effect of keeping our intellect from deeply probing the depths of the meaning of what we celebrate.
Notice the last line of the Gospel passage quoted above: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” What a beautiful line to ponder this Christmas day. Mother Mary was the one person who would have understood the mystery of the birth of her Son, the Son of God, the Savior of the World, far more deeply than anyone else. It was to her that the Archangel Gabriel appeared, announcing her pregnancy and His birth. It was her who carried her Son, the Son of God, in her Immaculate womb for nine months. It was to her that Elizabeth, her cousin, cried out, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42). It was Mary who was the Immaculate Conception, the one who was preserved from all sin throughout her life. And it was her who gave birth to this Child, carried Him in her arms and nursed Him at her breast. Our Blessed Mother, more than any other, understood the incredible event that had taken place in her life.
But, again, the Gospel above says that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” One thing this tells us is that even Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Mother of God, needed time to ponder, reflect and savor this most holy mystery. She never doubted, but her faith continually deepened, and her heart pondered the unfathomable and incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation.
Another thing this tells us is that there is no end to the depth of the “pondering” to which we must commit ourselves if we want to enter more deeply into the mystery of the birth of the Son of God. Reading the story, setting up a nativity scene, sharing Christmas cards, attending Mass and the like are central to a holy celebration of Christmas. But “pondering” and “reflecting,” especially during prayer and especially at the Christmas Mass, will have the effect of drawing us ever deeper into this Mystery of our Faith.
Reflect, today, my dear brothers and sisters, with our Blessed Mother. Ponder the Incarnation. Place yourself into the scene that first Christmas. Hear the town. Smell the smells of the stable. Watch as the shepherds come forth in adoration. And enter the mystery more fully, acknowledging that the more you know about the mystery of Christmas, the more you know how little you know and understand. But that humble realization is the first step to a deeper understanding of what we celebrate this day.
We live in a world of so much hopelessness, despair, and depression. It is important to ask what the basis for our hope is. Why do we hope?
People can use the word hope in a lot of different ways: “I hope that I get a certain gift for Christmas. I hope that my candidate wins the election. I hope that scientists will find a cure for Covid -19.” We all have different hopes, but what does it mean to have Christian hope? Christian hope is not just the thought that things might get better – but that no matter what happens, a person knows that God loves him – and that God awaits him.
St. Paul tells us that everything in the Bible was written so that we might have hope. By hope we become new men and women. In hope we are saved. To live our lives, we need hope. To encourage our young people, we need to be able to explain our hope. How beautiful it would be if we could appreciate the experience of St. Josephine Bahkita: “I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me – I am awaited by this Love. And so, my life is good.”
Faith, hope, and love… St. Paul, in I Corinthians 13:13, writes that these three are the bottom line. They are called the theological virtues; the qualities that make us most like God. We hear plenty about faith and love. But when is the last time you heard a rousing homily on hope? Why is hope important? And what is it precisely? To accomplish great things in life, you need a future goal that is big enough to keep you motivated. The promise of a diploma makes college students stay up late writing papers when they would rather be partying. The dream of Olympic glory gets the runner up early to put in miles while others are comfortably snoozing.
In the spiritual life, you will never do great things for God unless you have your eye on the long-term goal – indescribable joy in his presence forever. Hope is a spiritual muscle. But like all muscles, it must be exercised just to survive. Unused muscles atrophy. Use it or lose it.
That is why each year the Church gives us a season of Hope, which we called Advent. Though our society has made it a season of indulgence, it is meant to be a season of training. It is time to blow on the spark of spiritual desire within us till it bursts into flame. Christmas lights are nice, but it is we who are supposed to be the light of the world. God has taken on our humanity; God has accomplished four gifts for us; that is God has made himself
- a friend to each of us,
- is very close to us,
- has time for each of us, and
- has come to stay with us.
[Repeat God has made himself…]
Thus, today we are given much needed hope to help us deal with the difficulties and challenges of this pandemic. But we are also invited to be channels of hope to those who most need it as we strive to overcome the numerous inequalities and injustices that exist in our world and that the pandemic has revealed.
May the blessing of child Jesus come upon you and your near ones. Amen.
Fr. A. Francis HGN