Homily
for December 25, 2007
Year A - Cycle II
Christmas Day
by Fr. John Carney
Topic:
Sharing in His Divinity The Real Spirit of Christmas
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Gospel
Reading:
Luke 2:1-14
"...Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the cit of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.'"
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Do you have the Christmas spirit? What is the Christmas Spirit? We hear a lot about it - getting the Christmas spirit - and of course, there are many answers to that question. My favorite Christmas story, other than the actual Christmas story of Christ’s birth, is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We’ve all seen it, along with many different versions of it, and I think everyone would agree it’s a great, great story. You know in that story Ebenezer Scrooge, the “bah-humbug” hater of Christmas is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts: the ghost of Christmas Past, the ghost of Christmas Present, and the ghost of Christmas Future. Each one of these ghosts just scares him to death. He sees in Christmas Future his grave and he realizes that his life is short. And so Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a great conversion that Christmas Eve, and at the end he says, “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year long.” He was changed, and as a result of his change, he embraced the spirit of generosity. That’s a good lesson for us - to embrace the spirit of generosity. He was changed because of intimidation…he was scared into loving God. There’s something better than that. I don’t think this Christ child is about being afraid. Nor do I think the message of Christmas is one of intimidation.
There is a better story of Christmas, your story and my story, our experience of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas future. Of course, Christmas past is that first Christmas. We heard the beautiful Gospel of Matthew tonight. We heard about the shepherds in the field who were visited by angels. Of course, they were afraid also and as well they should have been. You know shepherds were kind of the “bikers” of their day. They were not good characters. We have made shepherds into glorious figures, but in Christ’s day, shepherds were not trusted. When a shepherd came into town, you locked your doors. So they were afraid of anything that came from God, not unlike Scrooge. You heard in the Gospel of Matthew that when the angels appeared and proclaimed glory, they were afraid. When the Angel of the Lord stood before them and the Glory of the Lord shown around them, they were terrified. The angels said, “And he said to you, do not be afraid; I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a savoir, who is Christ the Lord”. Do not be afraid. Not a threat, but an invitation to see and to believe and to accept the savior, Jesus Christ. Christmas past offers you and me that same invitation. You have accepted or you wouldn’t be here tonight.
Then there is Christmas present, today, December 25, 2003. This is the moment. Like Mary, we should be filled with God’s peace, filled with his glory, and we should say, “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.” We are his lowly servants as well, so if you believe on this Christmas Day that Christ is born and Christ is Lord, if you believe, then you will live in this moment, this day, without fear. Psychologists tell us fear kills people. It immobilizes them. It keeps them from living. Some people are so afraid of dying they never live. But not us. We are not allowed to be afraid. Than angel commanded us not to, and our presence here tonight says we are not afraid. St. Francis de Sales said, “Do not fear what may happen tomorrow. The same loving father who cares for you today will care for you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering, or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, and put aside all anxious thought and imaginings.”
Then there is Christmas future. I wonder what Mary thought on the first Christmas of the spirit of Christmas future. I wonder if Mary knew or had some idea that this babe she held in her arms some 33 years later she would hold again in her arms after he was taken down from the cross, dead. Anyone who has lost a son or a daughter can join Mary in the agony that she underwent.
But that wasn’t, of course, the end of the story. Three days later, that Son of hers rose from the dead and is now at the right hand of the Father in heaven. That’s the spirit of Christmas future…the return of Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead. And of his kingdom there will be no end. He was the child who would conquer death…he was “the great intimidator.” You know something, if you are not afraid of death, you shouldn’t be afraid of anything. If you believe Jesus is Lord and conquered death, the first born of the dead, then you shouldn’t be afraid of death. Therefore, you shouldn’t be afraid of anything. So Jesus promises us this everlasting life, but what does that mean? The return to the Garden of Eden? A status quo antebellum? No, something much greater. Jesus Christ promises us today a share in his divine life. St. Augustine said, “Oh happy fall of Adam that gave us such a wonderful Savior as Jesus Christ.” If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, we’d be in the garden eating stuff. Oh, happy fall. Thank you Adam, because Adam rose when Christ rose and we believe he’s with God now.
That’s the real message of Christmas, the incarnation of the living God. He became what you are so that you can become what he is. I say this each Christmas and every once in a while someone says, “That’s that new age stuff. Did you read a new age book?” I’m very proud to tell you I’m not reading any books. People are working me too hard. That’s the message of Christmas. You hear it in the Mass every Sunday. As the deacon pours the water into the wine, he says, “May we share his divinity, he who humbles himself to share our humanity.” That’s the message and I’ll prove it to you. Listen. I John 3 says, “We are God’s children now. What we will later be has not yet come to light, but when it comes to light we shall be like God for we shall see God as he is.”
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, in the 4th Century, said this:
“This is what the great mystery of Christmas is. This is why God became man and became poor for our sake. It was to raise up our flesh to recover the divine image, to recreate mankind so that all of us may become like Christ who became fully man. What is this new mystery of Christmas surrounding me? It is this: I am to be buried in Christ and to rise with him to become a co-heir with him and Son of God and indeed God himself.”
God will share his divinity with you. It’s the greatest thing he has isn’t it? If you love someone, you want to give them the best you have. God will share his divinity with us. Not that we deserve it, not that we can earn it; that’s just how much he loves us, that he gave his only begotten son so that we might have life. If that’s not clear enough, listen to St. Peter in the Scriptures, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promise by which we become partakers of the divine nature.”
That’s why human life is so sacred. Not because we’re king of the beasts, but because we’re made in God’s image. That’s why we protect the child in the womb and that’s why we don’t kill anyone by capital punishment, or we shouldn’t. Because each and every human person is made in God’s image. It’s an image good enough that Christ took that image upon himself. Human life is sacred. You are sacred.
This Christ child, this baby, is not some horrible vision to frighten us into submission to God’s will. A gift though, he is, given to us to join us in our suffering in our lives, to join us and walk with us so that we may walk with him.
What is the sprit of Christmas? It’s the same as the spirit of Easter. It’s to share life with God - not by intimidation, but by invitation. So what say you? Do you accept this invitation, as did Mary, as did the shepherds? If you do, if you believe Jesus is Lord, then you have to say, “I am afraid of nothing.” If you came in here carrying fear tonight, leave it here. There is nothing to be afraid of, because God is with you and God loves you and God has plans for you and what else do you want.
Getting back to The Christmas Carol, and so we say this with Scrooge’s nephew Fred:
"I have always thought of Christmas time, apart from its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that, as a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time. The only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely. To think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, Uncle Scrooge, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that is has done me good and will do me good and I say God bless it. God Bless Christmas. I say to you, Merry Christmas, Blessed Christmas, Joyful Christmas. Do not be afraid. You’re God is with you.”