Christmas – God’s Love For You Is Out of This World
First Reading: Isaiah 52: 7 – 10. Responsorial Psalm : Psalm 98. Second Reading:
Hebrews 1. 1 – 6. Gospel: Luke 1. 1 – 8.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him
not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was
the light of the human race. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to
the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to
testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world,
and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to
what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who
believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood
or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory, as of
a father’s only-begotten son, full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘ He who comes after me
ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” From his fullness we have all received, grace
upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus
Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only –begotten Son, who is close to the
Father’s heart, who has made him known.
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight…
On this Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, we ponder these words of the Latin hymn Jesu
Redemptor Omnium. Specifically, that Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, is One
with the Father before the origin of all created light and that He is sent by the Supreme Father that
He take on flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Word became flesh. Why? Because God does care. God had absolutely no need to become
one of us but did so to convince us how much we mean to him. Thank about how much you mean
to God! You mean so much to God that God became a human, just to convince you, and if that
isn’t enough to convince you, Jesus died for you. What more can God do to convince you he
cares about you?
This reality is reflected today within the Prologue of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…….
That Word is Jesus. It is truly amazing, almost unbelievable, that this Word, Jesus, who exited
since the beginning and is God, would become flesh.
We wouldn’t expect God to mix with us by becoming flesh. But the Word became flesh, God
became one of us to convince us that God does care about us. Because the Word became flesh
Jesus was like us in every way except sin. He even had the same emotions that we do.
The Word dwelt among us. The Word, Jesus, didn’t just become flesh and live a quiet life. He
became flesh and dwelt among us. He was a man of the people. That’s why they said of him, ‘a
glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners’.
John is saying the reason the Word became flesh was that we might get to know the Father. Jesus
is the Father’s Word to us. Jesus is the revelation of God the Father. How do we get to know the
Father? By getting to know Jesus. Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the way to the Father. If we
want to know the Father, let us get to know Jesus.
Honestly speaking when I first heard about Amazon it proposed ten years ago, I thought it was a
joke . Beside from the , We are people in a hurry, ‘give it to me and give it to me now,’ now
we want everything in 30 minutes, earlier it used to take one day for delivery but when I heard
that new Amazon delivery ready to go, in a short period of time. The Amazon, proposals tells us
who we are, we want now everything in 30 minutes, we want our food fast, we cannot wait to get
our phone or computer. We want our supper on the microwave, just don’t want to wait for
anything. We want everything almost instant. In the middle of all our impatience the Holy
Mother Church presses the pause button today to ponder upon the incredible gift of Christmas
“Jesus”
The white candle we lit today shines brightly signifying Christ Our Saviour, Light of the World,
born in Bethlehem. Last four weeks during the season of Advent we lit four candles one after the
other slowly to bring forth light. We have done a lot of preparation, decoration, wrap and ship
gifts, sending cards over the last few weeks in order to arrive on time. All this things are
necessary. But what is Christmas? Not cards, presents, Christmas tree. It is Christ the Saviour we
are celebrating. Emmanuel “God is with Us”, We stand at the door and invite Christ into our
home, into our hearts. It is worth asking us, what will be fine when He arrives.
Soon the wise men will scan the skies, they won’t be looking for drone from Amazon.com The
stars will appear in the sky and guided by the star they will encounter that Christ the Saviour who
is the very essence of our life. God does not come in a fast delivery mode like Amazon. He
comes in a gentle, humble silent way.
Today can be a noisy day. We’ll be making joyful noise as we sing “Glory to God in the Highest”
and “Joy to the World” at Mass. Many of us will be part of the controlled chaos involved in
unwrapping gifts and coming together for family celebrations. Who knows? We may hear as
many as forty or fifty thousand words today! Of course, this is right and good. But at the center
of it all is Jesus, the Word of God who came to speak life, healing, joy,, and peace into our world.
When John speaks of Jesus as “the Word,” he isn’t referring to the close to thirty thousand words
that the average person hears each day. Most of these words go in one ear and out the other. But
some stick with us and shape the way we think and the choices we make. These are the words
that matter.
Jesus brought good news of joy, of justice, of peace, of independence, free choice, of love, of
togetherness, of forgiveness, of sharing and so on. We can go on drawing a never-ending list of
all that the good news of Jesus offers to us. We are born to dream; we are capable of dreaming
eternal dreams. So we believe Jesus’ birth brought to us good news that contain all fulfillment of
our dreams. When our situation in life leads us to a need or desire of something we immediately
claim that is the content of Jesus’ good news and we forget all other dimensions of that good
news. Though God appreciates in the first reading through Isaiah, every person who brings that
good news of Jesus (How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad
tidings) people, I of this world do not appreciate everyone who announces the good news until
he/she announces the exact good news that satisfies their personal and situational need and desire.
There are people who insist one of fruits or promises of the good news and reject the others. For
example, many accepted the good news of justice but never cared about its love dimension; some
others care more of its power and authority aspect than of its humility service factor. This is why
endless wars, dissensions, rifts, civil wars and other social headaches present in our society, all in
the name of this good news. This is why God today on this Christmas invites us to accept his
good news in totality, namely accept Jesus as God’s good news. Jesus the good news is a package
offered to us.
It is a mystery as St. Paul tells us today. Therefore it cannot be fathomed out, nor can it be
appropriated at once or at one time. It has to be gradually unwrapped. The mysterious good news
of Jesus is, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. It is the duty of every person who
wants to get the most out of this good news to unwrap it properly and slowly and patiently and
enjoy all the content of it. When we look for one need of the day to be fulfilled by this good news
we should never ignore or overlook the entire holistic content of the good news. Jesus the Good
news is justice and love, individually and commune, poverty and prosperity, earth and heaven,
power and service, man and diversity, and leadership and followership.
Jesus, as John points out today in the Gospel is a mystery; a package of good news is God
Himself. Many both inside and outside of the church do not celebrate Christmas as the birthday
of God, born as man. They may perhaps esteem him as a godly man, man of God but never as
God-man, God Himself. But those who are present here, hear what John proclaims today as good
news. According to his preaching, Jesus was with God (the Word was with God).
What is Christmas for us in the context of what we are experiencing in and around us today?
Christmas is welcoming in our hearts and our midst a person who was and who is humanely
human. God in Jesus became humanely human, an ideal for all human persons, irrespective of
places, languages, cultures, nationalities and social status. For, our God who is God of all
humans, becomes humanely human. He embraces poverty, experiences rejection,, communicates
nothing but the message of God the Father, goes through the agony, passion and suffering to save
humankind through forgiveness and not revenge, through humility and not pride, through
sufferings, pain and not through comforts and wealth, who teaches us to call God ‘OUR Father,
and not my Father and thus excludes no one but embraces every one, who calls everyone to do
good like the good Samaritan, who tells us that whatever is done to the sick, the suffering, the
naked, the imprisoned is equal to have it done to himself, who teaches us to be selfless and not to
be selfish, who wants our serve not to be selective but to inclusive all human beings, who wants
us to live in unity, than to be forces of division, for whom true service is to wash the feet of one
another than to rule with power, position, wealth and domination, who wants to demolish all
Berlin Walls and reach out to one another without barriers and obstacles and one who teaches us
that to love is to offer one’s life for the good of the other! Who teaches us that to love is to offer
one’s life for the good of the other! Christmas, therefore, is the embracing of such a Gift of God,
as God who has become humanely human in Jesus, not to us Christians only, but to the whole of
humanity.
Christmas, therefore, is an invitation to us to become humanely human persons. In the words of a
lay theologian who said “ I am called in the Word of God – as is everyone else – to the vocation of
being human, nothing more and nothing less…to be a Christian means to be called to be an
exemplary human being.”
Is this message that we are called to be humanely human and therefore nice human beings not an
appropriate one for us at this point of time today? Is this not the need of the hour for us to take
into account seriously in the context of what we are experiencing in our families, communities
and in the society at large? The message is loud and clear: all human persons need to become
humanely human.
As noisy as today may be, make sure you set aside time to sit quietly and listen for Jesus’ voice.
Welcome him into your heart. Let Him share the good news of salvation with you.
This is the good news God announces to us today. The corruptible flesh we carry, the dirty world
we live in, the unpredictable earth we move around are chosen by God as his dwelling place.
Therefore to unwrap the good news package of God’s promises and our dreams’ fulfillment and
enjoy Jesus the eternal life and joy is to make a proper deal with all these wrappers, the flesh, the
world and the earth. When we use them and see the presence of Jesus in them. In our business,
our development, our politics, our power play and our entertainment and rest, in everything we do
let us see Jesus in them. Thus when we get one portion of our dream come true we do not lose
sight of the other parts of our dream of Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is God
who became flesh. He is the gift package offered to us for a fuller life.
God bless. Merry Christmas & Blessed New Year 2023.