2019 Christmas

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
Reading 1  IS 52:7-10
Responsorial Psalm  PS 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6
Reading 2  Heb 1:1-6
Alleluia, alleluia.
A holy day has dawned upon us.
Come, you nations, and adore the Lord.
For today a great light has come upon the earth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel  Jn 1:1-18

The word; Jesus is the word of God.
Jesus is what God has to say.
 
From time immemorial, we human beings have wondered…
what does God look like.
We have come up with some imaginative answers.
Many arms, animal heads or animal bodies.
We have also wondered how does god act toward us
and feel about us.
Our imaginations have done wonders there too.
Angry gods, gods full of trickery, malevolent Gods,
playful Gods, indifferent Gods.
We have wondered too…where does God live ?
      Inside images, in temples, on mountain-tops, in caves, in forests.


 
On the first Christmas, God made his word visible
and began to clear up all these mysteries.
 
What does God look like ?
Like a human baby…which is indeed a miracle;
 and eventually like a child, a teenager and a man.
 Insofar as God, who is pure spirit looks like anything, he looks like us.
 
How does God feel about us and act towards us ?
That’s more complicated.
Obviously He likes us,
or he wouldn’t have become one of us to live with us.
He trusts us, to cooperate with him in building his kingdom;
But that hasn’t always worked out so well for God.
He loves us enough to give us what we want,
even if it isn’t Him we want.
He loves us enough to have given his human life for us
in order for us to be with him in eternity.
 
And where does God live ?
The first place was his mother’s womb.
And then a manger in a stable.
Then a simple home in Nazareth,
And then wherever someone provided shelter
or in the open country…And then a tomb,
And now in the Church and in us.
 
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
We would like for Him to be all of that for all of us.
One lesson of truth Jesus teaches us is
that we should be like children.
Of course because children are humble,
but there is much more in children,
whose example we are called to follow.
 
They are happy; their lives are not too complicated.
They know how to have fun rather simply and easily.
They learn new things very fast and they notice things we overlook
 because we have seen them so often.
They ask lots of good questions because they really want to know.
They say what’s on their minds.
They make friends easily.
They trust other people, especially their parents.
They sing and pray easily.
All those things are more difficult for adults.
 
I think that Jesus really enjoyed being a child.
It must have been a big relief to be born a human baby,
to put aside all that responsibility of being God,
to experience the fun of playing, learning and growing.
 
He did all that. He was just like us in all things but sin.
We don’t hear in the Bible about Jesus as a child
because his childhood was so normal
and he didn’t do any miracles then to call attention to himself,
no need to argue with Pharisees.
He just wanted to be a child like we were while he could.
 
And that means that what human beings experience
                                                          is what God himself experienced.
 
Jesus and his family, poor and leaving their possessions behind,
           To escape violence and threats directed at them
                   fled to their most civilized and richest neighbor, Egypt.
Jesus was looked down upon because he was a Galilean,
          a distinctly 2^nd class Jew,
from a place it was thought no good could come from.
 
He was misunderstood, mocked, a disappointment to some,
                             for a while at least an embarrassment to his family,
he was unemployed and lived off of charity,
                                                especially that of rich women.
He was criticized for the friends he had,
and he hung out with the wrong crowd.
He got tired, hungry, angry, exasperated,
          He was hounded by favor seekers,
He was betrayed. He was framed,
the system of justice was stacked against him,
                                       he was only briefly on death row.
                   The governor who could easily have pardoned him didn’t,
                                                         in order to score political points.
He was innocent and still he was executed,
   but only after what must have seemed like interminable suffering.
 
Not that his human life was all negative stuff.
          Three Kings came and brought valuable gifts.
                   The blind, the lepers, the lame were genuinely grateful.
                                      The shepherds were ecstatic at his birth.
                             He had a great reputation among the least in society.
          He enjoyed his friendships and good meals.
His mother believed in him. So did his weak and flawed apostles.
 
Humanly speaking, He peaked on Palm Sunday.
                   And in the Resurrection he overcame all negativity
                                      and showed us the destiny of human life.
 
That all began at Christmas,
but you can see why Jesus must have enjoyed being a child.
Because he became one of us, He understands us.
 
 
He is not only God our Father,
but God our brother, and God the very best of friends,
who we can’t live without,
who gave his life to rescue us.
 
That all began at Jesus birthday,
          when God thought enough of us to give us this great gift
which we celebrate together today.
 
Saint Anselm, the great Benedictine theologian and scholar
          Asked and answered the question…
                   WHY did God become a human being ?
                             So that human beings could become just like God.
 
So on this Christmas day, may you become a little more God-like.
 
May the LORD bless you and guard you –
May the LORD make His face shed its light upon you
and be gracious unto you.
 
May the LORD lift up His face to you
and give you peace
and a happy Christmas.