Homily for Christmas day Year C
Theme: GOD HAS BECOME ONE OF US
By: Rev Fr Gerald Muoka
Homily for Saturday December 25 2021
R1 – Is 52:7-10
R2 – Heb 1:1-6
GOSPEL – John 1:1-18
In his Parable of the Birds, Louis Cassels tells of a man who refused to go with his family to the Christmas Midnight Mass because he cannot understand the incarnation. Left alone at home, he finds a flock of birds in his backyard. Caught in the storm, the little creatures are desperate for shelter. He tries to usher the birds into the barn by sprinkling breadcrumbs along the way. When this fails, he tries to show them in by walking around them, waving his arms in the air. But the birds still do not understand. Finally, he realizes the problem: the birds find him a strange and terrifying creature. They do not trust him. He murmurs, “If only I could be a bird for a moment, perhaps I could save them. “At that moment, he hears the church bells ring the good news of Christmas. He sinks to his knees, saying: “Now I see why God has to become one of us.”
Beloved in Christ, today is Christmas. Today, we are rejoicing because God has become one of us. The whole Christmas story tells how an invisible God becomes visible inorder to identify with humanity in a more yielding and salvific dimension.
At the heart of that beautiful introit story is a perfect explanation of what Christ comes to do in our lives. We humans have failed to recognize and assimilate the signals of safety offered us by the Eternal Logos. That is why God takes the human nature inorder to speak to us in a more human language and to save us from the perils of total condemnation.
The first reading gives us the assurance that just as Yahweh restored His chosen people to their homeland after the Babylonian exile, Jesus the Savior will restore mankind to the kingdom of God.
St. Paul in the second reading, tells us how God Who conveyed His words to us in the past through His prophets has sent His own Son so that He might demonstrate to us humans, by His life, death and Resurrection, the real nature of our God.
While the Gospel reading of today’s celebration, which traces the Divine genealogy of Jesus, brings home the magnifying characteristics of Christmas, especially when juxtaposed with the genealogy accounts of Mathew and Luke.
While Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus goes back to Abraham and Luke’s genealogy to Adam, John’s genealogy goes back to God Himself. John is more concerned with the WHY and WHO of Christmas than with the WHERE of Christmas.
John travels to eternity to reveal to us the theology of Christmas. He presents the Creation story as the framework for announcing the Incarnation. So he travels to eternity to reveal the Person of Jesus Christ. Viewing Jesus’ birth from God’s perspective, John clarifies the truth that Incarnation of God to save mankind was the Divine intention from the very beginning, from the moment of Creation.
_*REASONS WHY WE MUST REJOICE AND CELEBRATE.
*_
WE OUGHT TO REJOICE AND CELEBRATE BECAUSE:
(1) *AT CHRISTMAS GOD SENDS US A SAVIOR*
God undertook the Incarnation of Jesus as True God and true man to save us from the bondage of sin. The scripture affirms: “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16) We celebrate the Incarnation of God as a Baby today as Good News because we have a Divine Savior. As our Savior, Jesus liberated us from slavery to sin and atoned for our sins by His suffering, death and Resurrection.
(2) *AT CHRISTMAS GOD SHARES HIS LOVE WITH US*
Jesus, as our Savior, brought the “Good News” that our God is a loving, forgiving, merciful, rewarding God and not a judgmental, cruel, punishing God. He demonstrated by his life and teaching how God our Heavenly Father loves us, forgives us, provides for us, and rewards us. All his miracles were signs of this Divine Love. Jesus’ final demonstration of God’s love for us was his death on the cross to atone for our sins and to make us children of God. Each Christmas reminds us that sharing love with others is our Christian privilege and duty, and every time we do that, Jesus is reborn in our lives.
(3) *AT CHRISTMAS WE CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF EMMANUEL* (God living with us and within us)
Christmas is the feast of the Emmanuel because God in the New Testament is a God Who continues to live with us in all the events of our lives as the “Emmanuel” announced by the angel to Mary. As Emmanuel, Jesus lives in the Sacraments (especially in the Holy Eucharist), in the Bible, in the praying community, and in each believer as the abiding Holy Spirit, residing in us and thus making us His “Temples.” Christmas reminds us that we are bearers of God with the missionary privilege and duty of conveying Jesus to those around us by loving them as Jesus did, through sacrificial, humble, committed service. Sharing with others Jesus, the Emmanuel living within us, is the best Christmas gift we can give, or receive, today
*_LIFE MESSAGES_*
(1) *MAY WE LEARN TO IDENTIFY WITH THE NEEDY*
A very important message of Christmas teaches us to learn how to condescend and come down to people’s level inorder to effect great changes in their lives. Jesus came down to our level inorder to save us and liberate us from the curse of law (Gal 3:13).
(2) *LET OUR LIGHT SHINE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES*
Jesus became light for us to have life in full. Each of us should allow the light in our lives to radiate and shine into people’s lives during this festive season. Let every darkness of hatred, anger, pride, dissention, rifts, intimidations and divisions, stinginess, be dispelled in our lives
Finally, there was once a Rabbi who asked his disciples the following question: “How do you know when the darkness has been overcome, when the dawn has arrived?” One of the disciples answered, “When you can look into the distance and tell the difference between a cow and a deer, then you know dawn has arrived.” “Close,” the Rabbi responded, “but not quite.” Another disciple ventured a response, “When you can look into the distance and distinguish a peach blossom from an apple blossom, then you know that the darkness has been overcome.” “Not bad,” the Rabbi said, “not bad! But the correct answer is slightly different. When you can look on the face of any man or any woman and know immediately that this is God’s child and your brother or sister, then you know that the darkness has been overcome, that the Daystar has appeared.”
Beloved, let us strive to overcome and dispel darkness in the world around us by recognizing and celebrating Jesus in our fellow human beings.
*BENEDICTIONS:*
MAY THE E-M-M-A-N-U-E-L ALWAYS BE WITH US AND ILLUMINATE EVERY DARKNESS THAT IMPEDES THE RADIANCE OF THE CHRISTMAS GLORY IN OUR LIVES. AMEN.
*MERRY CHRISTMAS!*
_FR GERALD MUOKA._