God comes to be with us!
Homily preached December 25, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

Just like all of us ... many people around the world ... will gather today ......

 to celebrate Christmas!

But what do you think most people would say is the reason for Christmas?

Would Christmas be for them ... a religious celebration … or a cultural holiday?

In other words, would Christmas be about Jesus Christ ... or ... Santa Claus?

A few years ago, the Pew Research Center published survey results showing that just 51 % of Americans say that Christmas remains more of a religious holiday than a cultural holiday for them.

And that number will most likely continue to decline in future years because

while 66% of Americans over age 66 will celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday,

only 39% of Americans in their 20’s will do the same!

That’s quite a drop!      And we wonder, how can that be?

We’ve always been a Christian country ... so how could we ever stop celebrating  

  the single most important day in all of time … the Birthday of Jesus Christ?

Chatting with my Barber while getting my haircut on Tuesday ...

 I mentioned that we’re having 3 Liturgies Christmas Eve and

2 Liturgies on Christmas Day for our people to praise & worship & receive Jesus.

My Barber, who attends Church of the Highlands here in town told me sadly that his church is having a Christmas concert Christmas Eve...& then nothing today! 

Nothing ... on Sunday ... the “Day of the Lord” ... the day that God’s Third Commandment commands us to gather together to celebrate His love ... the day

that this year also happens to be the Birthday of Jesus, the King of Kings!

And this Christian church does nothing ... on Sunday!

And you wonder why ... the shift ...

from Religious celebration to Cultural holiday is happening!  Wow!

You know ... countless human babies are born into this world every day.

But there was one day …when a human baby was born …

who was both God & man!

That day was Christmas Day … 2022 years ago!

       It was a day that changed everything!

Because on that day, we got to see ... the God who had not been visible before!

For you children here tonight, ask your Parents ...

 if the day of your Birth was special to them.

You see, I’m sure they were happy just knowing that you were there with them …

even while you were hidden inside your Mother for 9 months!

But I’m also sure that their joy went to a whole new level when you were born ...

On that day,  they could see you … and talk to you … and listen to you …

and touch you  … and be touched by you!

Yes, you were already there with them for 9 months …

but being hidden is nothing like being seen.

And so it was with Baby Jesus!

He too was hidden inside his Mother, Mary, for 9 months …

and His Birth on this day 2022 years ago brought great joy to Joseph & Mary.

But in reality, Jesus had been hidden for much longer than 9 months!

You see ... Jesus is God … and so He always existed …

but He remained hidden from man since the dawn of Creation.

We knew He was there ... because His presence could be felt in many ways …

but we just couldn’t see Him.

So in the fullness of time ... God sent His Son, Jesus, to be born of Mary …

so that then,  we could see Him … and talk to Him … and listen to Him …

and touch Him … and be touched by Him!

How marvelous … that God, who is pure spirit …

would take on the lowly flesh of us, His creatures …

so that He could be with us in a more complete and loving way.

That’s what Christmas celebrates!

St. Augustine put it this way,

“Let us celebrate “the festive day” on which He who is the great and eternal day

came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.”

That’s why we’re here today … to celebrate that most wondrous day ...

the day when God, who is pure Spirit … became man ... to be with us!

So profound is this event that while we normally bow

when we refer to Christmas while praying our Nicene Creed,

today … on the very day of Christmas … we will genuflect when we declare:

“And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

And why did Jesus do this?      Why did he become man?

It’s because He wants every single person … to experience His love for them.

As humans with 5 senses God wanted us to experience His love in a physical way.

Here’s an example that demonstrates this: This past spring a Parishioner advised me that another Parishioner was in the County jail. 

So, I went to visit him and was told to pick up a certain phone down the hallway and I would get to speak to my Parishioner and see him on the wall monitor.

This meant that my contact with him would be very distant.

That never happened that day because he was taken to court for testimony.

I asked if I could have special permission as a Pastor to meet with my Parishioner in person. I was told yes if  I received permission from the Lieutenant. So I wrote a letter to the Lieutenant and got permission to enter the Jail, where a guard walked me to a meeting room and I could sit across the table and talk to him.

Before I got special permission ...

I couldn’t touch him ... to shake his hand or put my hand on his shoulder ...

I couldn’t anoint him with Holy Oil.

I couldn’t give him Holy Communion or even a Holy Card.

That’s the kind of barrier that Jesus broke through when He came to us as a Man.

Now He could comfort us and encourage us and guide us and heal us ...

not as a distant voice from Heaven … but as a brother close by.

What kind of God do we have?

One who took on human flesh and came to live among us.

That’s what Christmas is about … God coming to be with us ... as a Man!

That’s the Greatest News ever... for as the Angel said to the Shepherds that day ... “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people ...

for today a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”

Let’s celebrate Christmas like never before … with hearts full of gratitude for the gift that God the Father gave to us that First Christmas ...

the gift of His Son ... truly and substantially present to us in the Flesh ...

and remaining truly and substantially present to us in the Eucharist to this day.

And let’s recommit ourselves to talking to Jesus & listening to Jesus & loving Jesus

every day ... all throughout our lives ...

so that ... we will get permission from the Father...

to enter into the Halls of Heaven

to have an everlasting visit with His Divine Son, Jesus.

Amen!