CHRISTMAS 2021
“Keep Christ in Christmas.” This is a theme we support, and we have
fashioned many signs saying just that.
My question
for our prayer today is: “What about Christ are we keeping in Christmas?”
For us, it’s
not just Happy Holidays. It’s Merry
Christmas. This is beautiful but does it
say enough?
Keep Christ
in Christmas. Yes, we are celebrating
the birth of Christ to Mary and Joseph in the Bethlehem crib. But even the fact of celebrating his birth, is
that enough? As we celebrate Christmas
in 2021, Christmas is not simply about Mary and Joseph and the baby. It is about God becoming part of our daily
struggle, transforming the world through us. Tonight, love has conquered fear;
new hope has arrived. God’s light has
over the darkness. Celebrating Keeping Christ in Christmas in
welcoming the birth of Christ in the inn of our hearts in 2021.
Keep Christ
in Christmas. We celebrate the joy and
the love in our family life around the family Christmas tree and the joy of a family
dinner. It is by God’s design that our
children are the beacons of God’s light and love. When the Lord of history, the God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, broke the silence of the centuries and spoke in the
darkness of that first Christmas night, he spoke through a vulnerable infant in
a manger.
Why did God
come to us as a baby?
At the risk
of being schizophrenic, the presence of Jesus is revealed fully both in the
blessed chaos of our children at the 3:00m and the 5:00 Christmas Eve Masses as
well as in the solemnity of the midnight liturgy. God is present in the youthful enthusiasm of
our children and in the more solemn reverence of our other liturgies.
Keep Christ
in Christmas. It also means keeping in
Christmas the humility and simplicity of his birth in the Bethlehem crib. Do our exterior Christmas decorations obscure
how we are to discover the presence of Christ in our lives in 2021? Are we able to get in touch with the simple,
the ordinary, the humble moments of our day and to know in that simplicity we
will best discover the Bethlehem crib in our lives?
Keep Christ
in Christmas. It also means that we need
to keep in Christmas the message that all are welcome at the Bethlehem
crib. What is the housing situation in
the inn of your own heart? Is there room
in the inn of your heart for the family member for whom you have difficulty
getting along with? Is there room in the
inn of your heart for people who think differently than you -- politically,
religiously, or in any way whatsoever?
Is there room in the inn of our hearts for Jesus who lives in the hearts
of the poor, the immigrants, and children of all cultures and of all ways of
life? How many people in our world
today experience “no room in the inn” because of race, color, religion, gender,
or sexuality? The Son of God was born an
as an outcast in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.
Keep Christ
in Christmas. It means also we need to
keep in Christmas the compassion and love and joy and the light of Christ that
shines through all the dark places of life, transforming the world through
us. We are the people who walk in
darkness – the darkness of sin, the darkness of war, the darkness of
relationships that are broken, and the darkness of the threat of violence and
terrorism. The message of Christmas is
that Jesus comes for people like ourselves in dark places. The real, lasting, and deep joy of Christmas
is that light shines in the darkness.
We recognize
on this Holy Night that even after centuries of knowing Jesus Christ, our world
still wanders in darkness. Even after proclaiming the Good News of Jesus
Christ, our hearts are not yet converted completely to Him and our world even
less so. We humans are a broken people and each of us is broken.
Tonight is
Christmas! The birth of the Savior. We can rejoice, even though we
are broken because the Savior is born. We can rejoice even if we do not
always respond so well to our Savior because we recognize that the Savior has
come to us and will make us free. All we need do is rejoice in the Savior
and trust in Him as much as we can. God wants us free. God sends
the Savior to give us freedom. This is a freedom from darkness so that we
can live in the light. This is a freedom from our sinfulness so that we
can live in His grace. This is a freedom that is won for us by Jesus
Christ.
Keep Christ
in Christmas. It also means that Christmas
is to be found in the presence of Jesus among us and in our love for one
another. The story of Bethlehem points
to a vision of hope, one that relies not on the exercise of military power but
an on appeal to the common instincts of the human heart. These common instincts of the human heart are
very spiritual – a spirit of peace, a spirit of joy, a spirit of family, a
spirit of love, the spirit of Christmas
We are
missioned to be the keepers of the mystery of Christmas – God is with us. We
give birth to Christ when we allow the light that is within us to extend to our
family, and our parish family, and to all of creation. The Christmas mystery happens when we allow
ourselves to be loved by God.
Keep Christ
in Christmas. It also means the mystery
of Christmas happens for us when we connect the story of our lives with the
story of Christmas. Each of us is an
innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus. The Christmas message is the story of God’s
unconditional love for us. As his
disciples we are to fill this world with many other stories that mirror and
give witness to God’s love for us. That
is the meaning and wonder of the Incarnation.
Keeping Christ in Christmas happens when we love to be loved – to be
immersed in the merciful love of Jesus.
Keep Christ
in Christmas. The real meaning of
Christmas is that God is with us. In the
inn of our own hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and
lying in a manger. Why did God come to
as a tiny infant?
Yes, we need
to keep Christ in Christmas in all the ways we communicate that all welcome at
the Bethlehem crib. We are to love thy
neighbor, no exception. We are to keep
in Christ in all the ways we welcome God to become part of our daily struggle
and to transform these struggles by allowing the love of God into our
lives. We are to connect our story with
the story of Christmas. We are to keep
Christ in Christmas through our faith-filled awareness that God is within
us. In the inn of our hearts, there is
infant wrapped in swaddling and lying in a manger.
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