Praised be Jesus Christ, our newborn King. I'd like to wish you all a very
blessed Christmas. Today we celebrate what on a natural level is always a
most joyous event, the birth of a baby. You know, there's always great joy, or at
least there should be, when a baby is born. But the baby who is born today
brings even greater joy.
As we heard in the first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord
proclaims to the ends of the earth that the Savior comes. And so it's not just a
matter that a particular couple had a baby and their friends and family
rejoice with them. But rather, in this situation, the whole world rejoices
because today, as St. Paul makes clear in the second reading, the kindness and the
generous love of God have appeared. Even prior to that, in the
second chapter of his letter to Titus, St. Paul says that the grace of God has
appeared, offering salvation to all men. Just ponder those points. The grace of God
and the kindness and the generous love of God.
That's what we have in this little baby. St. Paul says to the Philippians that Jesus
is the image of the invisible God. So the miracle of what we celebrate today is God,
who is born as
a human.
human baby. Now this is something which is completely beyond anything that our minds
can even begin to grasp. This child on one level is just like any other baby who is born,
you know, tiny, innocent, vulnerable, dependent upon his mother.
And yet at the same time, this child is unlike any other child who has ever been born, not only
because this child is God, but, you know, every single baby
is born.
And so a child who is conceived is conceived by the will of his parents, you know. This child
is conceived because he willed it. You know, obviously none of us can do such a thing because
none of us existed before we began in our mother's womb. But when the human nature of Jesus began to
live,
within the womb of his mother, when his divine nature had already existed from all eternity.
So the fact that God would become one of us is the most astounding thing that we can even imagine.
Yet we have to ask the question, why?
I mean, perhaps we can grasp the idea that God wanted to become man in order to save us from our sins.
But even so, the question is, why would he become a baby?
You know, God created Adam and Eve as adults.
He could have done the same thing himself.
We know.
One reason he came as a baby is to teach what we are to be.
Jesus tells us that we are to be as innocent as doves.
So, you know, what is a baby?
Innocent.
Pure.
Gentle.
Vulnerable.
Dependent.
Trusting.
You know, the list could go on and on.
And what does he want from us?
To be like little children.
To have the innocence and the trust and the dependence upon God that a baby has upon his mother.
That's what he wants from us.
You know, he took on our nature so that we could take on his.
That is exactly what the priest says when he mixes a little wine, a little water with the wine at the offertory.
By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ.
Who humbled himself to share.
In our humanity.
As St. Paul points out in the second reading.
It is through baptism that we've become members of Christ.
And heirs to eternal life.
He became one of us so that we literally could become a member of himself.
To share his life.
And his nature.
And so today, you know, we celebrate the.
As we celebrate the nativity of our Lord.
We need to think very deeply.
About the joy that.
Comes with the birth of a baby.
And we need to think about the.
Peace that there is.
You know.
Mary, we're told, held all these things in her heart.
She pondered them.
And just think what a.
A mother does with a baby.
You know, she sets the baby on her lap and she just.
Simply gazes at the child.
Looks deeply into the.
Eyes of the baby.
The baby's awake.
And even if the baby's asleep, you know, the mother.
Just stares as if to look beyond what's physical into the depths of the being.
Of that child.
And that is what Jesus asked of us today, you know, to.
Have the kind of joy and the kind of peace that is experienced by a mother in union with her.
Child, the kind of innocence that is present.
And to be able to look upon or beyond what is seen into the very depths of this child who looks beyond what is seen in us to the very depths of our being.
And.
What it is that.
That we do with a baby.
You know, we we love the baby.
How could you not love a baby?
All Jesus wants from us is to come near to him.
To.
Ponder him.
In our hearts.
To.
Thank him.
For becoming.
A man and redeeming us.
This Christmas.
Let us return that love that our Lord has.
For us and.
And give Jesus our whole heart.
Amen.
Amen.
God bless everyone.
Remember him.
You, too.
Have mercy.
on us, everyday, everywhere you are.
Remember him again and again, every minute.
On every step of the movement on every step.
On every single step you have.