Child-like wonder at the story of Christmas
Children have a wonderful way of entering into the story of Christmas, identify very easily with it. The Nativity play captures their imagination, they play their part with enthusiasm, whether it be the part of the Shepherds or Angels or Wise Men, Mary or Joseph. It is a story that is very accessible to them and to all adults.
Celebrating Good News
At Christmas we celebrate the good news that God has become accessible.
As adults, perhaps we tend to experience God as remote and removed from
our every day world of work and worry, of family and demands and
economic uncertainty. But at Christmas we are reminded that God comes
to us in human life, a life that began as all our lives began as a
vulnerable and helpless infant. Newborn children are very accessible,
very engaging. They quickly become a focus of attention in any group.
They are disarming and invite and encourage us to reflect on the beauty
and marvel of creation in the human person. They do not communicate in
words, yet, they communicate with us very powerfully.
Emmanuel – God is With Us!
In and through the baby in Bethlehem, God was communicating with us very
powerfully. Matthew in his Gospel names this child, Emmanuel,
God-with-us. In a sense every newborn child is Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Every newborn child is an image of God and reveals something of the
mystery of God, the creator.
As Christians we believe that the newborn child was Emmanuel in an
unique sense. Because of that as Christians we celebrate His birth year
after year. We celebrate the birth of Jesus every year because we know
who this child became. It is because the adult Jesus has in some way
spoken to us and engages us that we celebrate his birth. It is because
we know that he lived and died and rose from the dead for us that his
birth is so important to us.
A Joyful celebration of Good News
We will return to our homes after this Mass and it worth remembering
what we are celebrating. We celebrate, because, in the words of the
Angels to the Shepherds in the night sky in Bethlehem, we have heard
“news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people”. The good
news is that God has drawn near to us in and through human life.
God is with us here and now in the Eucharist
As we gather to celebrate our Eucharist, God is present to us this
Christmas. In coming to the Eucharist tonight/this morning we are like
the Shepherds who hurried away from their flocks to Bethlehem to welcome
and receive this gift of God which has been made known to them.
The
Shepherds who had gone to Bethlehem and witnessed what had been told to
them, went back to their flocks glorifying and praising God for all they
had heard and seen. They went back to share what they had received, as
we too are called to do.
Welcome of the Shepherds
The Shepherds went to Bethlehem to welcome the child Jesus into the
world. We come to the Eucharist to welcome the Lord into our hearts.
Receiving him in the Eucharist we are at the same time invited to
receive him more fully into our lives so that we can continue his life
in and through our own lives. That is the great Christmas calling, the
great Christian calling. The Lord wants to be born anew within each one
of us, he wants to live and work in us and live through us.
The Meaning and Message of Christmas
The message of Christmas is that we are loved and welcomed by God. We
are free and able to go forward to better things. To begin all over
again. To become as a little children, to recover our experience of life
and take up again the rebuilding of our world.
A Message of Hope
This provides us with hope even in the midst of what can frequently be a
harsh and cruel world. The child coming among us is the sign that God
has opened the door for us towards this hope and this life-giving
journey.
Light amidst the Darkness
Isn’t it interesting that at the darkest time of the year we focus on
light. Christmas lights up the darkness. When John the Evangelist
wanted to express the mystery of the Feast of Christmas he wrote: “a
light shines in the darkness, a light that darkness could not
overpower”.
The adult Jesus spoke of himself as the light of the world
and promised that those who follow him will never walk in darkness.
Many of us today experience a sense of darkness in one form or another.
It might be the darkness of depression, illness, of a broken
relationship, of a deep loss or the darkness which envelops us when we
look at all that is not right within our world or our Church.
Lumen Christi
This Christmas we celebrate the coming of Jesus as light into our
darkness. This Christmas we might make our own a wonderful prayer of
Cardinal John Henry Newman who was beatified earlier this year.
It is a
prayer addressed to the risen Lord as light in our darkness:
“Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
I do not ask to see the distant scene—one step enough for me”.
Conclusion and Christmas Greeting and Blessing
Joining with the Parish team, Frs. Stephen Farragher, Ray Flaherty, Seán
Cunningham, Sr. Mary Corr, with the Pastoral Council, I pray that the
Lord will light up any darkness you may experience, enable you to make
sense of your suffering and give purpose to your pain so that you will
experience Christmas as happening within you.
The child within each of
us being caught up in wonder, Christ being born, not somewhere else, not
even at a different point in time, but rather Christ is coming now in
our midst and so we can have a truly happy and blessed Christmas.