Merry Christmas to all, with assurance of prayers for each of you. On this Christmas Day, I remember all of you in each of the Christmas Masses, and the same was true as we celebrated in St. James Cathedral last night. May we open our hearts to Christ today and allow him to take up his dwelling within us.
Below you will find the livefeeed from last night’s Carol Service and Mass where you can experience the beauty of the cathedral and the many people who came to pray and celebrate the birth of our Lord. You can listen to the homily and or read it below.
Merry Christmas!
As we celebrate Christmas this night / day, I wish to draw our attention to the obvious, namely, God, and more specifically, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
With the birth of Jesus as told from Luke’s Gospel fresh in our minds, I also wish to call to mind John’s Gospel where we hear the very famous phrase:
The WORD became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14)
St. Paul in his First Letter to Timothy sums up this greatest moment in the history of salvation in these words:
“Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion,
Who was manifested in the flesh,
Vindicated in the spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed to the Gentiles,
Believed in throughout the world,
Taken up into glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16)
These are just a few of the Sacred Words from Scripture that help us understand and appreciate the significance of the Incarnation; God took on our human flesh – for so many reasons! To manifest the love of God to the world in a manner and language we could appreciate; to accomplish the great work of mercy and redemption; to demonstrate once and for all that Love changes us and Love saves the world.
In Jesus Christ we see the importance of relationships – and especially that God through his Son desires an intimate relationship with each of us and with all of humanity.
When you think of all the traditions that mean so much to you at Christmas time – baking, decorating, preparing gifts, receiving gifts!, isn’t it the time with friends and family that give the season so much of its warmth and meaning? These human relationships of love are important touch stones in our growing in relationship with God; with Jesus. Christmas, with all our human traditions, is a celebration of God’s entrance into the world in human form, as Jesus, the Son of God.
In The Word made flesh – God speaks to us through our humanity! God loves us through a human (and yet divine) relationship! The whole Christmas story is about relationships; between heaven and earth, angels and men and women, Mary and Joseph, Shepherds and Wisemen, Jesus and all of creation; Jesus with you and me.
Christmas for us in the Northern Hemisphere always comes in the first few days after the winter solstice, when the light of each day begins to increase once again, rather than diminish. How dark our world would still be had the Light of the world not come forth from God. Jesus as the Eternal Truth reveals the emptiness of lies and falsehood. Jesus as eternal Wisdom guides our way in a world filled with enmity, fear, hostility, hate and division to justice, peace.
Jesus not only guides our way, but desires something even more intimate – communion through love.
Pope Francis in his recent Encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus encourages us to make our hearts a guest house for God! This attractive invitation helps us better understand that Jesus comes into the world to become our friend and to make us friends of God and of one another. The love of God made manifest in Jesus is our open door through which we are invited to enter into this life-changing relationship. Psalm 73 speaks to us the truth of the deepest longing of every human heart: “What else have I in heaven but you [Lord]? Apart from you I want nothing on earth.” Here is some true wisdom!
This Christmas, we are invited to make our heart a dwelling place for Jesus who comes to make his home in and with us. As this dream of God becomes reality, just as the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem so many years ago, we are made ready to bring this gift of God to others. This Christmas, we ask once again that the love of God change us. We look for the Christmas miracle in our time, to know and believe that Love changes the world; Love saves the world.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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