Christmas Homily from Bishop J. Perry during Midnight Mass at St. John Cantius.
Christmas 2024
Tonight is a time for story-telling. Sacred storytelling. One particular story we never tire hearing, told over and over for two-thousand years now and counting. The Lord God we know and Father of us all stepped out of heaven and visited us in our situation. Something truly miraculous happened that night. It is a long story with a number of chapters that have dazzled us and that bring us together tonight out of a sense of wonder and appreciation for who this God is and who we are with and for this God.
This Savior-Child ushers in a new dawn, a dawn of hope for a humanity that was lost in the night of sin and in need of a Savior.
The reality of evil can be simply overwhelming. It can be tremendously disheartening when it dawns upon us to the extent to which evil has seemingly prevailed in the world. Nonetheless, this annual feast would press a reminder that despite appearances there is more good in the world than evil. Evil of course gets more attention. Yet, all around us, faithful priests are carrying forth their duties silently and faithfully. There are vowed religious who fast and pray ceaselessly for the Church. Mothers and fathers are training their children in holiness and cultivating an atmosphere of love and devotion in their homes. There are men and women running businesses bearing witness to the Gospel in their workplaces. And devout men and women at large are ministering to the least of society in the name of Christ.
Our English word “vindication” means to set free, to avenge, to defend or to free from allegation or blame. The Lord has freed us from our sins. And He has avenged us for all the evil we have had to suffer in life. In becoming one of us He has freed us from blame and shown favor toward us. He became human for the sake of our broken humanity. With His absolutely astounding taking on of our flesh we will be defended from sin forever. God has our back, in case we have not known.
This vindication is a restoration of human dignity after human nature had gained a bad name. By reason of the man and woman’s infidelity from the beginning we were forsaken, and everyone knew it. We were despoiled of our true wealth – the Lord – and we became desolate as a result. But now, tonight the Lord has pursued us. God shows his favor toward us with a love as deep and as solid as that of newlyweds. The union between the Lord and humanity now will never diminish. He has become flesh, one with us in His humanity too and has bridged the gap between the Divine and the human that was torn asunder earlier by sin.
Like the love of newlyweds that love should only grow deeper. Christ’s holy humanity has the power to make our humanity holy too and it is destined to grow.
There are key protagonists in this sacred story worth mentioning:
The God of Israel chose to break His silence and reveal Himself and walk with the patriarchs, then freed their children’s children from a harsh sojourn as slaves in Egypt and from those dark days established a people as His people.
When the king the people clamored for failed them – Saul was his name – the Lord raised up David as their king, a king who would hopefully always be faithful and loyal to Him. But King David also failed seriously. His descendant, Jesus, would be faithful to the Father forever and save us forever.
God kept trying with us!
Notice, God came to us not as a powerful prince or king but in a tender moment where parents hold their infant for the first time. How striking and marvelous is this mystery of God’s largesse to us! The fact that both of these images of God are true pulls us into postures these days of wonder and humility.
Notice, we were caught unprepared for the Divine visit. Angels were quickly dispatched to some shepherds in the vicinity with news of the Child Jesus’ birth and coaxed to go visit the Child and Mary and Joseph. All the while, the news of this event reached astrologers from countries East who came with mysterious and illustrious gifts for the Child. These men sensed something powerfully prophetic with this birth meant to benefit the world. In the meantime, the evil that was in the world tried to destroy the Child.
John called the Baptist, as a young man, also heralded the arrival of the Messiah. This evening we celebrate what angels announced and Wise men from eastern lands knew by God’s instruction that the Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth by God’s appointment, - the only begotten Son of God.
Being descended from David the king, set in the human order of things, his lineage comes from Joseph a carpenter from Nazareth of the same family line. But Jesus would not be in the human family tree at all if not for Mary welcoming Him into her womb enabling Him to assume human nature. But there are saints and sinners in this family tree just like our family trees. But God shows his solidarity with all of them by taking up a place with them in life’s joys and sorrows.
God continues to pursue us!
The Gospel presents Joseph trying to face the dilemma of this Incarnation of the Savior God. A solid religious man he was, chosen to protect God’s secret – namely, the origin of His Divine Son and the absolute integrity of the Child’s mother.
Every birth is a miracle but the birth we are in awe of tonight/today takes the miraculous to an entirely different level. God has come among us full of grace and truth. God came among us despite our waywardness precisely because He is so enthralled with us.
The Christmas season in the church’s worship calendar is relatively brief but it is an excellent time to resolve to live each day as if God is with you. Because He is. Already this evening and tomorrow there will be gifts, visits, meals and joy inspired by the arrival of this Child. But there may also be dashed expectations, family tensions or worries that didn’t take a holiday break. The key is to remember that our Lord is with us. He is all we need to repair things and sample a taste of heaven God wishes us to have insofar as we can be gifts to each other.
The feast of Christmas annually has always stirred faith and belief and hope precisely when these were hard to find in the culture and in our individual lives.
Sources of news on the internet are quick to cite the diminished religious tone overtaking American society much like Europe. A respected Cardinal of the Church, Robert Sarah, comments that “the West no longer knows who it is because it no longer knows and does not want to know who made it, who established it as it was and as it is… This self-suffocation naturally leads to a decadence …”
A Lebanese hermit monk, declared a saint in 1977, St. Charbel Makhlouf, gently prods this generation with these words: “Do not sell your souls in the markets of this world. Your souls are very valuable.”
These days of political crisis, moral derailment, and war call for erudite Christians able and willing to proclaim unapologetically the story of the Christ and the gift of his visit to a mixed-up world.
But mind you, according to the New York Times, certain observers of religion and society of note are opining that “there is statistical evidence that the latest wave of secularization has reached some sort of limit. There is suggestive cultural evidence that secular liberalism has lost faith in itself, that many people miss not just religion’s moral vision but also its metaphysical horizon, that the arguments for religious belief might be getting a new hearing.” Responsible sources envision a positive up-tick, that the later 2020s might be different religious practice-wise than the trends of the 1990s. Stay tuned!
It’s my thought and hope that the New Year will bring each of you a stretch of hope and good health. Let’s remember that we Christians are called to be involved in this life, carrying forth the values of Jesus Christ we hold. As Jesus was light and hope to so many, our faith summons us to be that light to others. Faith, hope, and love are the sources to strengthen us during these challenging times.
In the meantime, take time out to tell the Christmas story to the children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews and others close. It is a story that dazzles them too because the children are in the sacred story. And children deserve to know how much God loves them.
And, ideally, as love gives itself away these festive days, living these days in a way that gives always to others and thinks less of self is a Christmas gift that lasts all year long.
Have a blessed and graced-filled Christmas feast, one and all!
View the livestrem of the Christmas Midnight Pontifical Mass with Bishop Perry below.