Christmas homily

birth-of-jesus

The Mystery And Gift Of Christmas

birth-of-jesus

Christmas 2019

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: December 25, 2019

What is God doing?  What is God trying to say to us?

We speak of Jesus as the Word of God.  In Jesus, God wants to speak to humanity.  God wanted to reveal something to us.

What do you think God wanted to say to us in Jesus?  What do you think God was trying to say to us?

This is an incredible mystery and gift.  That the Creator of the Universe, the infinite Spirit, who is God, wants to speak to us human beings.  Jesus is God’s Word spoken to us.

Some things we know about that Word.  First, it was Good News.  In this time of bad news and fake news, what a gift to have God speak to us Good News.  God spoke this word not in a display of overwhelming power, but in weakness, poverty, simplicity.  A helpless baby.

God was revealing the dignity of each human being.  Including the poor, the weak, the outsiders, the sinners, those rejected by so-called good society.

Secondly, this Word is a Word of Mercy.  God did not come to condemn us but to save us and set us free.  So many of us struggle with guilt.  We feel we are not worthy for God.  But, in Jesus, God says something so different.

Recently I had someone come to speak to me in the church.  He had been away from church for a while and felt that he had not lived a good religious life.  He said to me that he was worried about coming to the church because lightning might strike him.

But, the mystery of Christmas is God coming among us, to the outsiders, the so called sinners.  In fact, the powerful, the Pharisees, the Priests, the so called religious elites of the time did not recognize or embrace this Jesus.  It was the poor and the ignored Shepherds who received this Word.

If you consider yourself to be an outsider, not normal, different, a sinner, then that is good, for God in Jesus is speaking directly to you.  My hope at this birth of Jesus is not based on my being a priest, rather it is based precisely on my being a sinner, a human being who struggles.  For the Word of God, the Word spoken to us in Jesus is precisely for us who are sinners, the outsiders.

In Jesus, our God was building a bridge to come over to visit us and speak to us.  In Jesus, our God speaks a word to our hearts.

This Word of God is Good News.  It is a Word of mercy.  In the coming of Jesus, God builds a bridge to reach all of us.  Including those considered outsiders, unimportant, different.  This Word is spoken to each one of you.

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