Christmas Day
Beloved in the Lord Jesus, today is Christmas. It is the day when we celebrate the birth of Our Savior into the world.
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Jesus came into the world for one purpose: to save us from our sins, so that we may go to heaven.
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I saw a man in the hospital the other day, he was not sure he would make it home for Christmas, but he said, ‘Father, if Jesus had not come, we would all end in hell.’ I said, ‘You’re right.’
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Since the Original Sin had alienated us from God, the world had been waiting for the promised Savior. Our first parents chose to follow the Devil, instead of their Creator, and so we were under the rule of sin and Satan.
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But as the time was nearing for the Son of God to come down from heaven, the prophecies of the Old Testament were being fulfilled, and those who were seeking God felt that something – was happening.
A great Impulse of grace was about to push into the world. This world, and the heavenly world were mixing, touching.
Shepherds observe a tear in the fabric of space, momentarily revealing angels on the other side;
those supernatural beings, unable to contain themselves, break through to this world singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’
God is preparing to renew the world, to save us.
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But as Divinity is preparing to enter the world of Man, as the Son of God prepares to begin his mission to take back the earth, an uncomfortable silence is felt in the world of the demons. That satanic being, Lucifer, is very old. When he tricked Adam and Eve, and took them from the heart of God, he knew God would come some day to win them back. And now there was a sense that he was losing his grip on humanity. One can almost hear Lucifer say ‘I sense that he is coming, the Promised One, there is danger.
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Today the demons tremble. The God of Armies enters the world as a helpless infant. A sense of dread has infected the demonic channels. The battle is enjoined; God’s invasion of the earth is about to begin, to win it back. ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, says Zechariah, for he has come to his people to set them free to save us from our enemies.’
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Brothers and sisters, how many people out there are walking in the darkness, lost in their sins? So many, are in the shadow of death. Caught in an empty life of despair, not knowing the call of the Savior. In our own circles we know those who are trying to fill their heart with THINGS – materialism; or yet another relationship – giving their body away outside of marriage, killing the pain of loneliness in drunkenness or drugs or pornography or gambling or adultery – and the endless ways that lives are dissipated away in despair.
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There are many who say to themselves: ‘I should stop this way of living, it’s destructive, but it will have to be later.’
You know, for St. Augustine, before his conversion, he cried out to God, ‘Lord, make me chaste, but not yet!’
I’ll turn back to God – later. The devil uses this thought to drug these poor souls and hold them in their mess.
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But Jesus says, ‘I have come to wash you clean in my blood, to cure you, and take away all your sins. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven. You can begin again.’
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Christ once told a parable about a shepherd who lost one of his sheep. He went out carefully looking for that sheep, and when he finds it, does he scold it and say, ‘why have you wandered away? No. He is very happy, and he puts it on his shoulders and carries it home. ‘I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.’
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This is why Jesus came down from heaven. He is the shepherd who has left heaven, to come down to search for his lost sheep: you and I. And everyone.
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‘But my sins are too great; it’s too late for me; my lifestyle I can’t change,’ they say. Really? Do you know how many saints in the Catholic church we honor, who lived lives – I guarantee you – worse than yours? St. Cammilus, St. Margaret of Cortona, Mary of Egypt, St. Augustine, Bartolo Longo, thousands who knew that they could not get out of their sinful life without the power of Christ. But with his grace, following him – Yes. A new life is possible.
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You know, there was a custom[i] at the time of Our Lord that when a child was born, musicians would go gather at the house to play music welcoming the family’s new child. Well, Jesus’ arrival was not greeted by some simple musicians, but by a choir of angels from heaven. They sang the message out: We proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.’
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We don’t need to go to hell. And we should tell our friends.
One drop of the blood of Jesus Christ has the power to take away all our sins. And then we begin again, we begin a new life, but not a lonely or empty one, chasing lies of the devil; we begin a new life in the Lord.
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How do we keep living it? How do we walk through a perverse world keeping our joy? Well, we here know: daily we pray.
St. Alphonsus says that if we don’t pray we can’t be saved. We pray when we rise. We pray at meals, and thank the Lord at the end of the day. And even more, we speak words to Jesus who is with us in our work and in our play. ‘Lord help me now.’ ‘Help me to love you.’ ‘Forgive me again.’
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And when the spirit of sadness tempts us, we say: ‘Lord, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me that you hear me, that you are with me.’ And in this, we are walking daily, not our own life any more, but Jesus’ life in us.
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Many go to daily Mass, and monthly confession, spiritual reading, pray the family Rosary. Walking daily with the Lord. Jesus said, ‘I will be with you all days, even to the end of the world. He is with us spiritually in our souls all day, and he is with us bodily – we touch him – at Holy Communion,[ii] in which he builds us up. He is still with us.
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St. Paul was once an enemy of Christ, but he changed. He left his former ways. Of the destructive life he led before, he says ‘I count all that as rubbish!’[iii] Leaving it all, he found happiness. The renewed St. Paul says: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; Rejoice! Have no anxiety….and may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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May the prayers of Mary, the Mother of God help us all to walk with Jesus in our life, and find the joy and the peace of Christmas.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of Venerable Mother Dudzik]
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[i] The Gospel of Luke, William Barclay, p. 17
[ii] In the Latin Mass, at the end of nearly every Mass the priest recites the beginning of John’s gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word……and the Word was made flesh.’ This reminds us that this is what just happened at Mass.
[iii] Phil 3:8
