The Nativity of the Lord Christmas
Today's Scripture
This story may appear to you to be an anti-climax to all our Christmas preparation and sometimes the naïve sentimentalism of contemporary Christmas celebrations. But here is a real story that was reported. I have titled this story “Christmas 2009.” This is the story of a young, pregnant immigrant woman who was admitted to an Ohio hospital with unusual pelvic injuries. She spoke no English and looked terrified. The staff at the hospital asked, Casa Amiga - a local organization that works for migrant workers - for a translator. They soon discovered that the woman, an illegal immigrant, was being held captive by a local couple to bear the husband’s child, probably for sale to another childless couple. The woman’s injuries were the result of the couple’s efforts to speed up the birth. It is to address issues like these that on Nov 9 -10, 2009 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services held a Conference on Human Trafficking at the University of Dayton. The conference produced the Dayton Human Trafficking Accord.
I debated much about beginning my Christmas homily with such a heartbreaking story. But is it any less heart breaking to hear that on a cold wintery night, a pregnant migrant couple went door to door looking for a place to give birth to their child and when no one would help them, they gave birth to the child in a stable? It is not uncommon for us think of the Christmas story as a perfect, glamorous story. Sometimes we get caught up with the romantic elements of the story; God’s inexplicable love for us, the humble compliance of Mary, the perfect obedience of Joseph, the innocence of the baby Jesus, the singing of the angels and the bright leading star. But then, there are also the unpleasant dimensions of the story – the inhospitality of the people, the birth of Jesus in a stable, the baby in a manger, Herod’s insecurity, the persecution of innocent children, and the flight the holy family to Egypt. But that is the reality of the “WORD made FLESH” – that the perfect Christmas story (WORD) unraveled itself in a very imperfect world (FLESH). Two thousand years later, Christmas 2009 is not any different – Christ comes to us, the “word becomes flesh,” Emmauel, God is with us in a continuously imperfect world.
My homily today will focus on the central message of all the readings for Christmas – “The word became flesh….” I would like to discuss this in the following three points.
1. Our individual life is a microcosm of the Christmas story. Our life too is a mixture of the good and the unpleasant of the Christmas story. On the one hand, each of us desires God’s love, the holiness of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the innocence of Jesus, the joy of the angels and each of us wants to be a star for God. But the unpleasantness of sin also haunts us – we too can be inhospitable toward God, we too can ignore the stranger, we too have our insecurities and fears, we too can defy God’s will – these are also realities of our life. The joy of Christmas comes from the fact that God does not reject us just as he did not reject the imperfect world. Hear the text from the second reading from the dawn mass: “When the kindness and generous love of God our Savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us…” (Titus 3: 4-5). Yes! The word became flesh in an imperfect world. God still loves the world; God still loves you and me. God continues to save.
2. I am not in the habit of putting up a tree for Christmas. I have my reasons but that is beside the point. Knowing this, last year, one of the RCIA candidates gave me a little tree and ornaments to go with it. When I took the tree down I realized that one ornament never made it to the tree. I felt bad for the ornament. You see, an ornament makes sense only on the tree. We have just read the Christmas story in the gospel reading. That story is like the Christmas tree. And then there is the story of our life - the ornament. If Christmas must make sense to us today, then both these stories have to come together, like tree and the ornament. We are familiar with the tragedies of that first Christmas story. The tragedy today would be if our story does not become one with the story of Christ. In every immigrant we serve, in every life we save, in every unborn we protect, in every hungry we feed, in every homeless we embrace, in every lonely person we love, in every enemy we forgive, in every naked we clothe, our story and the Christmas story becomes one… WORD BECOMES FLESH.
3. In the television version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, I saw an episode where a man celebrates Christmas every day of the year. He has a tree lit all year, he wraps gifts all year, he offers goodies all year, he dresses up as Santa and gets up each day as if it was Christmas day. On the screen it looked bizarre. But if think about it from the Christian perspective. If we think about if from the perspective of the “word made flesh,” then this bizarre guy is not too far off. Think about it, every Eucharist is a new Christmas, because in every Eucharist the “WORD BECOMES FLESH.” At every Eucharist Christ becomes present to us in a real way. At every Eucharist Christ comes to us in flesh and blood. Christ continues to be born anew each day… God continues to save in the Eucharist.
So here we are at this Eucharist. Here is our crib; this altar is our manger; here the word becomes flesh. God has come to us and today we bring ourselves to God. To the extent that our life and mingles with God’s life, to the extent we allow God to become one with us, this Christmas will be as special as that first Christmas. May the Work become flesh in our lives. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph
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