What about Christ do we wish to keep in Christmas?

 

CHRISTMAS 2024

 “Keep Christ in Christmas.”   We see this manta on many posters around Christmas time.

My question for our prayer today is: “What about Christ are we keeping in Christmas?” 

Yes, we are celebrating the birth of Christ to Mary and Joseph in the Bethlehem crib.  As we celebrate Christmas in 2024, what is the meaning of the story of Mary and Joseph and the baby?

Tonight, the Christmas message is that love has conquered fear; new hope has arrived.  God’s light has overcome the darkness.   Celebrating Keeping Christ in Christmas is about welcoming the birth of Christ in the inn of our hearts in 2024.

 

Tonight we celebrate the Christmas message is that love changes history. Make us believe, Lord, in the power of your love, so different from the power of the world. Lord, make us, like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Magi, gather around you and worship you. As you conform us ever more to yourself, we shall bear witness before the world to the mystery of God’s love in our lives.

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.

God comforts us in the Christmas mystery not simply that we may be comfortable, but the real Christmas message is that God comforts us so that we can comfort others.

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 the message “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.  To say again, the Son of God was born as an outcast in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.

It means also we need to keep in Christmas 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. There is war in the Holy Land. 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.

Yet, even in the humanity of each one of us, we are missioned to be the keepers of the mystery of Christmas – God is with us. We give birth to Christ when we allow ourselves to be loved by God, when we allow the light that is within us to extend to our family, and our parish family, and to all of creation. 

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 2024?   The Bethlehem crib reveals the extreme humility of the Lord, at the hardships he suffered for love of us.  In the Bethlehem crib, simplicity and poverty and humility shine forth.  As we ponder the Christmas mystery, 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 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.

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.

Have a blessed Christmas day.