Christmas Vigil (OF)

Stories have been a part of our human experience since we have existed.  Even before we could write out words, we traced images onto the walls of caves.  Soon we began to have those appointed to the task of telling stories, either through recitation or through writing.  With the advent of motion pictures, we now have even more ways to enjoy our favorite stories come to life before our eyes. How many different stories have been told throughout the centuries: Odysseus and Aeneas, Arthur and Camelot, Robin Hood and his Merry Men, the modern sagas of the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Each of us has that story that we know from beginning to end, that story which we treasure greatly, which we return to time and time again.

What is it about that one story that attracts us to return to it even when we know the plot and could probably recite the whole thing from memory? It is something which speaks to us deep down within our being, striking a chord within our heart.  It resonates with what we desire and what we wish could be.  It is the proper resolution of all things: the wicked are overthrown and punished, the good are rewarded, and all live happily ever after.

This resolution is what every decent human being desires in their own life, and so we seek to affirm this by clinging on to stories where this resolution occurs.  How else do you explain the movies which get the biggest box office profits?  We want to see the triumph of good over evil, the victory of the hero against the villain, not the opposite.  Only a deformed mind would desire that evil emerges triumphant and good be crushed.  We treasure these stories because we recognize the reality that there is evil in our world, and that perhaps it might win over us unless we act.

Yet how often does it seem that this view of good versus evil is called simplistic or misguided in our own day?  We are told that one man’s view of good and evil may be vastly different than another’s, and that we must not seek to impose or be intolerant of the other’s views. Some even question the labels “good” and “evil” as being out-of-touch with the modern understanding of morality.  They will tell us that each value has its own place and time and that we cannot judge or dismiss these ideas from our minds. How often do we hear the phrase, “Who am I to judge?”

If any of us really believed this view of the relative value of good and evil, then we would not be here tonight.  For tonight we re-hear the story that has been woven into the human experience from the very beginning.  We hear once more the story of the real battle of good and evil which has been waged from the creation of the world, and which continues now and unto the end of time.  It is the story we are all too familiar with, yet the story which we should delight in the most.

Saint Matthew hints at this story in the beginning of his Gospel, when, as we have just heard, he lists out the generations between Abraham, David, and the one whose birth we are beginning to celebrate.  For those who are in the know, this list of names is like the beginning of a TV episode saying ‘Previously on...”  That story which is found within those names begins in the Garden of Eden, when God creates man and woman, giving them life and calling them to union with Himself.  Of the fall of humanity we are all too familiar both in story form and in our own experiences.  We may try to deny it, but we know that there is a condition which leads each one of us to do that which we know is not right or to avoid doing that which is good.  So we see evil strike its first blow against God and against humanity, but it is not the last blow for either side.

Our story continues with Abraham: called in other places in the Scriptures the righteous or the faithful.  He obeys God completely in his life, from his call to leave his homeland and enter Canaan - the future home of his descendants - or even to the point of nearly offering his son as a sacrifice to God.  Abraham is one of the most holy people portrayed in the Old Testament, but he is not capable of finishing the story, and so it continues after him.

Next we see King David, the strong warrior who secures the nation of Israel against her enemies. David is highly praised in the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms as a righteous king and a holy warrior.  Yet David was not completely righteous or faithful; the most famous incident is when he lures Bathsheba away from her husband and commits adultery with her, even killing her husband so that she could be his wife.  David is thus seen as incapable of completing this story of humanity, and so it continues after him.

We then hear about those who are sent into exile after Israel is conquered many years after the death of David. This is one of the lowest points in the story up to tonight’s feast: the nation promised by God to exist forever had been conquered and banished from the Promised Land.  It seems at this point that God will not be victorious, that perhaps the devil will emerge victorious in this story.  But it is not the case: God eventually frees the people so that they may return to their heritage and live once more in the favor and grace of God.  Yet none of these men or women listed were able to conclude our story, and so it continues after them. It continues until tonight.

With the child whose birth we celebrate tonight, our story begins to turn towards its climax through the introduction of the most unexpected of persons: not another character but the very Author of the story itself.  For the child born to us this night is no mere child.  He is the Creator of the entire universe become a creature within that same universe; He is the Author of the great story who becomes one of the characters within that same story; He is the indivisible, infinite, immortal, eternal God become weak, fragile, mortal man so as to serve that same God.  It is this child who will turn the story towards its climax through His life and through His death.

Indeed, what we celebrate tonight is the fact that God becomes personally present to us through the same flesh which we all possess so as to bring about the conclusion desired by God.  Only the Author can end the story, and so too is it necessary for God to bring about this needed conclusion. Yet humanity must be intimately involved in that conclusion since it was man who started the mess in the first place.  So it is that God takes on our flesh and is given a part in the story which He has already written before the dawn of time.  So it is that this Jesus is born in Bethlehem so as to free us from our sins.

We know the conclusion of the story: we see it in the Cross displayed so prominently in our church.  We will celebrate it once more on Easter Sunday when we recall and rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  But can we really say that all of that is the true conclusion to this story we have reviewing?  How can we say that this story is done when it seems that so little has changed from before?

It is true that the story of humanity is finished in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.  Jesus’ vindication shines forth like the dawn and His victory like a burning torch, as prophesied by Isaiah in our first reading.  Yet this story is not finished for each one of us.  It is unfinished in that we each are given the choice of either joining in with the victorious story of Christ or of writing our own story against God and against Christ.  It is unfinished in that it is still being written in our hearts and in our lives, the pen standing over the paper at each moment to write down and to trace out our path either towards union with God or abandonment of God.

We all know the classic ending of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: Ebenezer Scrooge, having been visited by three spirits showing him Christmases past, present, and future, changes his ways for the better, exclaiming at the end “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” For the Christian, this is meant to be not the end of our individual stories, but the beginning of our own adventures.  Each one of us is called to a part in the great story of humanity’s fall and rise. Each one is meant to make our own the story of Jesus Christ: born in a stable, hidden for 30 years, teaching and preaching and working miracles, praised by many, hated by some, cursed and derided, tortured, suffered, crucified, died, and resurrected, now reigning gloriously in Heaven after his ascension.  If we are to honor Christmas all year, we must make our broken or discordant stories one with the story of Christ, with the story of His Church, who cannot be separated from Christ.

Let us rejoice in this day, because God does not abandon us as failed stories, but instead willing enters the story so as to restore us.  Let us rejoice in that God stoops down to meet us in our flesh so that we might be able to be united to Him.  But let us not forget this story or merely write it off.  Let us honor the true message of Christmas through our living out the consequences of that story: conforming ourselves to Christ through His Church, the Church who is the greatest storyteller in the world, for her story is both fantastic and true.  Let us continue to hear that story each Sunday and indeed each day of our lives so that we may not be entertained but that we may be moved to transform ourselves to be more like Christ our hero, Christ our victor, Christ our king.  May we truly celebrate the Christmas story by reflecting it in our lives in each moment, so that we may rejoice at the conclusion of this story at the Last Day, when all the wicked shall be condemned, all the good shall be rewarded, and Christ will glorify His faithful with the gift of eternal life.  Let us live out our stories in union with the great story of Christ so that we may be a part of the new story which will be written in joy and in peace, where all shall live happily ever after.

Baptism of the Lord (OF)

If I had been a member of a bridge club or a fraternity, yet I had left the club because I did not agree with their rules, could I still claim to be a member of that club? The answer seems pretty obvious that I should not claim membership to a group which I have such deep disagreement.  If I wanted to make the bridge club play euchre or the fraternity drop out of college altogether, could I really say that I represent the ideas and positions of each group?  Better still, if I claim to be a member of the club yet I never attend nor do I support the club, am I really living as a member of that club?  Yet how many will claim that they are Catholic yet either disagree with one of the Church’s fundamental positions or offer little in the way of support or even their presence in church?

As we conclude the Christmas season, we look at the mystery of the inauguration of Christ’s public ministry: His baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist.  We receive another epiphany of Christ, another manifestation of the One whose birth we have been celebrating these past few weeks. But in this manifestation is made present not only Christ, but the full Trinity which is at the heart of the divine being.  God the Father speaks towards God the Son, while God the Spirit descends and anoints the Son as the Christ, the Messiah, the One chosen from before time to bring about the redemption and salvation of humanity.

Christ undergoes His baptism not out of a need for it; how can He who is God incarnate have any need for the removal of sins?  Yet He willingly receives His baptism so as to receive the anointing from which the name Christ comes.  Jesus also undergoes baptism, Saint Ambrose tells us, so that the waters of the world are made clean for baptism (cf. Catena Aurea on Lk 3:21-22).  This moment marks the transition from Christ’s life as unknown son of a carpenter to His very public ministry of preaching and teaching and effecting miracles, all pointing towards His ultimate destination in Jerusalem on Good Friday and beyond.

Jesus’ baptism serves to distinguish Him from all the rest of humanity through those words pronounced by God the Father from on high: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” In this statement is revealed that Jesus will be the fulfillment of all that was prophesied, most especially something we hear in Isaiah today: the chosen One of God upon whom His Spirit dwells.  From here we will see Jesus revealing bit by bit the mysteries of the kingdom of God until all is opened to us on Easter and at Pentecost.

Yet the Baptism we celebrate today should make us mindful of our own baptism, for each one of us has been washed clean by the waters of baptism.  We have become members of Christ and of His Church through this cleansing action, along with becoming a new creation in the New Man who is Christ.  In union with Christ, each one of us is called by the Father “His beloved, in whom He is pleased,” because of our union with His only-begotten Son that begins at the moment the water touches our forehead and the priest says the baptismal formula over us.

Baptism should remind us of the great miracle of water worked by God for the Israelites as they escaped Egypt, when Moses invoked God to part the waters of the Red Sea so that they could escape slavery in Egypt.  Just as the whole people of Israel passed through the parted waters towards freedom, so too have we passed through water towards the freedom from slavery and freedom in Christ.  Yet, just as the journey of the Israelites was not finished at that point, so too is our journey in Christ not finished at baptism, but has only just begun.

When we are baptized, we make a solemn vow to reject Satan and all his empty works and all his empty show, taking instead as our captain and guide Christ and His Church.  This vow means that we belong now to nothing else and no one else but God.  No one has any right upon us except God in whom we have been redeemed and are on the way to salvation.  Yet how often is it that we do not truly realize this reality but instead try to make God to be beholden to us?

Many modern Christians will try to claim that they love Christ but do not love His Church, or they will say that it would be better if the Church changed some of her positions on certain topics so as to catch up to the times or to better attract the masses.  Yet many of these positions strike at the very core of the Church’s beliefs and, in fact, infringe upon those teachings which have been revealed to us by the God who was personally present to humanity over two thousand years ago and still speaks today through the Church which He has founded upon the apostles.  To change any of these positions would be like our earlier examples of making the bridge club play euchre or the fraternity drop out of college.  It redefines what it means to be Catholic and to be a Christian.

When we were baptized, each one of us was made bound to God with and through His Church.  This does not give us the right to decide what is to be held or what is to be tossed aside.  Ours is to accept that which has been handed on to the apostles and has been passed on to us whole and complete for over two thousand years.  We do not get to decide what the Church believes and professes, but it is we who accept what she teaches and proclaim it to the world.  To do otherwise is to be like the numerous Protestant branches claiming to act in the name of the universal and traditional Church when they have splintered so far from the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church that it seems as if new branches are splintering off by the minute.

In baptism, we have received the gift of God’s mercy first won for us on the Cross and the promise of the Resurrection.  This in turn imposes a sacred duty upon each one of us to maintain the traditions which have been delivered to us from the apostles (cf. 1 Cor 11:2).  If we are to be members of the Catholic Church, we cannot then let the phrase, “I’m Catholic, but...” escape our lips.  Otherwise, we are not faithful to the vow we made at baptism and to the Church which Jesus Himself established and maintains to this very day.  And if we are not faithful, then we will not be the beloved children of God and unworthy of the reward God wishes to give to us.

Let us not fall into the trap of the devil in trying to make ourselves the rule of faith, but let us be obedient to Christ through His Church.  Let us be faithful to our baptism and to the vows we made, following the example of the One who was first baptized.  Let us renew our vows to reject Satan and to believe in Christ and begin to live out those vows each day.  Let us marvel in the mystery of the life of Christ who leads us on as He lead the Israelites from slavery to freedom.  Let us not make our baptisms the beginning of our eternal condemnation, but the beginning of our eternal life in Christ, where we will receive the reward of faith for all time.

Epiphany Sunday (OF) - The Two Reactions

When a child is born in our day, everyone tries to come and greet the newborn child and to congratulate the parents. Gifts may be exchanged, especially for a first child. The visitors oooh and aaaah over the baby, trying to see the parents in the child’s features. It is a joyous occasion for all, except perhaps the baby tossed around the room.  These past few days in the Church have been no exception to that. How many people have come before the crib scene to rejoice in the birth of the Christ Child? How many have joined the angels and shepherds in glorifying God on this great day? The crowds have come from every land and nation, every people and tongue.

Today we see the beginning of that procession in the Magi coming from the East. Three non-Jewish men become the first to greet the newborn Child from outside of the people of Israel. They come bearing their own gifts for the Child, each pointing to who that Child will be when He grows up. But the coming of the Magi is not joyful for everyone.

Herod, the reigning king of Israel, is furious at the news which the Magi bring him. In fact, all of Jerusalem is afraid of the news, as Saint Luke tells us. They are afraid because they fear what Herod will do. And Herod’s reaction is gut-wrenching: he tries to kill the child by killing all the boys born around the same time as Jesus.

What an awful reaction to have at the birth of a child! Yet Herod, in his rage and his jealousy, expresses the fulfillment of what will be said about this Child when the Child is presented in the Temple; that this Child will be the fall and the rise of many. For today marks that point when the Light of the World born on Christmas Day begins to shine upon the whole world.

The word Epiphany signifies a revelation or a manifestation, and the visit of the Magi indicates the beginning of the manifestation of Christ to all the world. This manifestation of Christ can only lead to one of two reactions: the first is seen in how Herod reacts - though perhaps not as extreme. Yet one reaction to Christ is rejection, even a forceful and furious rejection. How, you might say, can one reject a child? The reasons or the excuses concerning this Child are numerous: too many demands, too impossible to be real, too simplistic, and so on.

We've heard the excuses from family members or friends about why they don't believe the Gospel. But they are all excuses, especially when compared to the reaction of the Magi - humility, reception, and service. These Wise Men are indeed wise in more ways than one; they are scholars who have determined that the Child born in a lowly stable will one day reign as King of the universe.

In light of this, they do three things. First: they humble themselves before the newborn King. Recognizing Him as King even while held in His mother’s arms, the Magi react with the normal reaction before the divine: awe and reverence. Next, they receive Him as their King by offering gifts. To give a gift to a king in ancient times meant that you hailed them as a king, and the Magi do the same for Christ. Finally, they serve Him both in their gifts and in their lives. While the Scriptures do not give us more about them after they return home, tradition tells us that the Magi left and bore witness to Christ the King until their deaths.

How then shall we react to the newborn Child manifested before us? Shall we reject Him and embrace anything and everything else other than Christ? Shall we reject Him not with the anger and violence of Herod, but with the coldness and indifference of our modern times? Shall we reject Him while still pretending to receive Him? Or shall we imitate the Magi?

Let us pray, brothers and sisters, that we do not reject the newborn King, but that, by the grace of God, we follow the wise example of the Magi. Let us humble ourselves daily before our God and King. Let us bring Him our gifts of love and thanksgiving and reverence, especially when we come to receive Him in the Eucharist. Let us also desire to serve Him by the daily witness of our lives, manifesting the newborn King in all that we do. Let us do all this so that we may be found worthy to marvel in the courts of our King for all eternity.

Christmas Vigil Mass (OF)

Stories have been a part of our human experience since we have existed.  Even before we could write out words, we traced images onto the walls of caves.  Soon we began to have those appointed to the task of telling stories, either through recitation or through writing.  With the advent of motion pictures, we now have even more ways to enjoy our favorite stories come to life before our eyes. How many different stories have been told throughout the centuries: Odysseus and Aeneas, Arthur and Camelot, Robin Hood and his Merry Men, the modern sagas of the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Each of us has that story that we know from beginning to end, that story which we treasure greatly, which we return to time and time again.

What is it about that one story that attracts us to return to it even when we know the plot and could probably recite the whole thing from memory? It is something which speaks to us deep down within our being, striking a chord within our heart.  It resonates with what we desire and what we wish could be.  It is the proper resolution of all things: the good are rewarded, the wicked are overthrown and punished, and all live happily ever after.

This resolution is what every decent human being desires in their own life, and so we seek to affirm this by clinging on to stories where this resolution occurs.  How else do you explain the movies which get the biggest box office profits?  We want to see the triumph of good over evil, the victory of the hero against the villain, not the opposite.  Only a deformed mind would desire that evil emerges triumphant and good be crushed.  We treasure these stories because we recognize the reality that there is evil in our world, and that perhaps it might win over us unless we act.

Yet how often does it seem that this view of good versus evil is called simplistic or misguided in our own day?  We are told that one man’s view of good and evil may be vastly different than another’s, and that we must not seek to impose or be intolerant of the other’s views. Some even question the labels “good” and “evil” as being out-of-touch with the modern understanding of morality.  They will tell us that each value has its own place and time and that we cannot judge or dismiss these ideas from our minds.

If any of us really believed this view of the relative value of good and evil, then we would not be here tonight.  For tonight we re-hear the story that has been woven into the human experience from the very beginning.  We hear once the story of the real battle of good and evil which has been waged from the creation of the world, and which continues now and unto the end of time.  It is the story we are all too familiar with, yet the story which we should delight in the most.

Saint Matthew hints at this story in the beginning of his Gospel, when, as we have just heard, he lists out the generations between Abraham, David, and the one whose birth we are beginning to celebrate.  For those who are in the know, this list of names is like the feature of a TV series episode saying ‘Previously on...”  That story which is found within those names begins in the Garden of Eden when God creates man and woman, giving them life and calling them to union with Himself.  Of the fall of humanity we are all too familiar both in story form and in our own experiences.  We can try to deny it, but we know that there is a condition which leads each one of us to do that which we know is not right or to avoid doing that which is good.  So we see evil strike its first blow against God and against humanity, but it is not the last for either side.

Our story continues with Abraham: called in other places in the Scriptures the righteous or the faithful.  He obeys God completely in his life, from his call to leave his homeland and enter Canaan - the future home of his descendants - or even to the point of nearly offering his son as a sacrifice to God.  Abraham is one of the most holy people portrayed in the Old Testament, but he is not capable of finishing the story, and so it continues after him.

Next we see King David, the strong warrior who secures the nation of Israel against her enemies. David is highly praised in the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms as a righteous king and a holy warrior.  Yet David was not completely righteous or faithful; the most famous incident is when he lures Bathsheba away from her husband and commits adultery with her, even killing her husband so that she could be his wife.  David is thus seen as incapable of completing this story of humanity, and so it continues after him.

We then hear about those who are sent into exile after Israel is conquered many years after the death of David. This is one of the lowest points in the story up to tonight’s feast: the nation promised by God to exist forever has been conquered and banished from the Promised Land.  It seems at this point that God will not be victorious, that perhaps the devil will emerge victorious in this story.  But it is not the case: God will eventually free the people so that they may return to their heritage and live once more in the favor and grace of God.  Yet none of these men or women listed were able to conclude our story, and so it continues after them.

Until tonight.  With the child whose birth we celebrate tonight, our story begins to turn towards its climax through the introduction of the most unexpected of characters: the Author of the story itself.  For the child born to us this night is no mere child.  He is the Creator of the entire universe become a creature within that same universe; He is the Author of the great story who becomes one of the characters within that same story; He is the indivisible, infinite, immortal, eternal God become man so as to serve that same God.  It is this child who will turn the story towards its climax through His life and through His death.

Indeed, what we celebrate tonight is the fact that God becomes personally present to us through the same flesh which we all posses so as to bring about the conclusion desired by God.  Only God is capable of this, yet it is man who must do this since it was man who started the mess in the first place.  So it is that God takes on our flesh and is given a part in the story which He is writing.  So it is that this Jesus of Nazareth comes so as to free us from our sins.

We know the conclusion of the story: we see it in the Cross displayed so prominently in our church.  We will celebrate it once more on Easter Sunday when we recall and rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  But can we really say that all of that is the true conclusion to this story we have reviewing?  How can we say that this story is done when it seems that so little has changed from before?

It is true that the story of humanity is finished in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.  Jesus’ vindication of humanity shines forth like the dawn and His victory like a burning torch, as prophesied by Isaiah in our first reading.  Yet this story is not finished for each one of us.  It is unfinished in that we each are given the choice of either joining in with the victorious story of Christ or of writing our own story against God and against Christ.  It is unfinished in that it is still being written in our hearts and in our lives, the pen standing over the paper at each moment to write down and to trace out our path either towards union with God or abandonment of God.

We all know the classic ending of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: Ebenezer Scrooge, having been visited by three spirits showing him Christmases past, present, and future, changes his ways for the better, exclaiming at the end “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” For the Christian, this is meant to be not the end of our individual stories, but the beginning of our own adventures.  Each one of us is called to a part in the great story of humanity’s fall and rise. Each one is meant to make our own the story of Jesus Christ: born in a stable, hidden for 30 years, teaching and preaching and working miracles, praised by many, hated by some, cursed and derided, tortured, suffered, crucified, died, and resurrected, now reigning gloriously in Heaven after his ascension.  If we are to honor Christmas all year, we must make our broken or discordant stories one with the story of Christ, with the story of His Church.

Let us rejoice in this day, because God does not abandon us as a failed story, but instead willing enters the story so as to restore us.  Let us rejoice in that God stoops down to meet us in our flesh so that we might be able to be united to Him.  But let us not forget this story or merely write it off.  Let us honor the true message of Christmas through our living out the consequences of that story: conforming ourselves to Christ through His Church, the Church which is the greatest storyteller in the world.  Let us continue to hear that story each Sunday and indeed each day of our lives so that we may not be entertained but moved to transform ourselves to be more like Christ our hero, Christ our victor, Christ our king.  May we truly celebrate the Christmas story by reflecting it in our lives in each moment, so that we may rejoice at the conclusion of this story at the Last Day, when all the wicked shall be condemned, all the good shall be rewarded, and Christ will glorify His faithful with the gift of eternal life.  Let us live out our stories so that we may be a part of the new story which will be written in joy and peace, where all will live happily ever after.

Night Mass of Christmas (OF) - The Light in the Darkness

Silence has fallen upon the earth, the silence that comes with the long night. Only those things that inhabit the night, that prowl about in the darkness, are awake and moving. Around the world, men and women are huddled in their beds, sleeping away in the darkness, waiting for the morning. Even the great emperor, the Caesar who seems to have control of everything, sleep quietly in his palace in Rome. But not all is quiet, not all is dark.  In a small corner of a small province of the great Roman Empire, a child is born. It is that child whom we celebrate tonight. But who is this child? Why is this child so important that we celebrate his birth 2,014 years later? What is it that this child will do as a man? And what does this child mean to us here right now?

Isaiah gives us a hint about this in the first reading when he declares, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwell in the land of gloom a light has shone." It is this theme of light and darkness which pervades our mass tonight, this first mass of Christmas Day, celebrated from antiquity at night, usually at midnight. It is most appropriate to offer the celebration at night due to the birth of this child, that birth which has been traditionally held to have occurred in the night, in the darkness of the world. For it is that child who will transform the darkness into something far more marvelous.

The same child, when he becomes a man fully grown, will declare himself as the light of the world. In fact, in the massive Christmas Day, which will be celebrated tomorrow, The church proclaimed the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, the beloved apostle. St. John in that same gospel declares, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was the light of men; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." What do we mean when we say that this child is the light? A parable may help us to understand this term and how it is that Christ the child born to us is the Light of the world.  This parable actually comes to us from a pagan Greek philosopher named Plato who lived about 500 years before the birth of Christ, but it finds great significance in a Christian context.

Imagine that the race of men are restrained in a cave deep below the earth, restrained such that they are incapable of any motion. Suppose that, on the cave wall in front of them, are projected images of things faintly lit by a fire, or, to make it more modern, by a film projector. If one had grown to maturity in this state - never moving, never being free to see anything other than that projected on the cave wall - it is no surprise that this one presumes that the images are all real, and that there is nothing else to be done but to accept them. But, if one can be freed of his shackles, see the cave walls and the limited images along with their projector, and discovers that there is something far more real, more than all that he had known, would he not desire to remain in the real world rather than return to the cramped spaces and threadbare images? Would we not rebuke one who stayed in the cave after being freed as foolish or weak or trapped in an illusion?

Jesus Christ, the child born to us this night, has done something far more marvelous than simply freeing us from the paralysis of the cave, from the darkness and false reality under which we were subjected.  This child who is declared to be the Light of the World has revealed Himself to us.  It is in answering the question “Who is this child?” that we discover how bright the Light is.  For this child, of flesh and bone like each one of us, is different in one major aspect from every other human child ever born, being born, or will be born.  This child, this tiny little infant with such a weak voice, with no strength to even turn Himself over let alone to stand and walk - this child is God.

Yes, you heard me right.  That tiny little infant is the Infinite Son of God.  That weak little voice, crying out for help, for His mother, is the same Voice which declared in the beginning “Let there be light”; the same Voice which spoke to Moses in the burning bush; the same Voice which conversed with the prophets.  This supremely feeble child with no strength in His arms or legs is the same Power by which all things are ordered and established towards their ultimate end.  Jesus Christ, the child born among us tonight, is the God who exists beyond our time.

Ours is not to understand how this happens. The ways of God at times are so far above our understanding that we will never be able to comprehend completely fully truly what he is doing. Ours is to understand that it did happen. Without losing his divinity, without taking any of it, Jesus Christ who is God, the Son of God the Father, who is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, without losing any of His divinity nor without missing anything that is human, receives the same flesh and blood as each one of us here tonight. This is the mystery of the Incarnation, the Enfleshment of God. Nine months after the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, He is born among us.

Indeed, this is a joyous night. We celebrate God coming among us, the fulfillment of the name Emmanuel, the long-desired of the nations coming to us. We indeed rejoice with the angels in echoing their triumphant chorus of praise, that Gloria which the Church recites in joy at all the great feasts, but echoes most when we celebrate this night.  Who, in contemplating this event, is not enrapt in joy?  Who does not lovingly gaze upon that humble manger to be reminded of this most joyous of news, that God shares a human life with us? The only thing that could be better than this would be to be with God all our days. But that, brothers and sisters, is the exact reason why He is born to us on this sacred night.

Going back to the parable of the cave, Jesus Christ came to share the divine light, the light of truth, the light of salvation, the light of divine love for each and every one of us.  Christ comes to reveal to us that this world is not all that it appears to be, that there is something more, something further up and further in, as C.S. Lewis alludes to in his Chronicles of Narnia series.  We sometimes sense this, that there is more than meets the eye, but we often brush it aside and settle comfortably into what our mere senses tell us.  Indeed, it seems that our age is incapable of looking at anything except what is directly in front of it, and even then does not seem the forest for the trees.

But Christ our Light shines through the darkness of our ignorance, the darkness brought on by our sins and by the work of the devil, the perpetual agent of malice against God.  He reveals to us the facade of simple reality and shows us something more is there, or rather someone who is more is there.  For Christ the light reveals to us the light which is God himself, God in three persons, the sacred Trinity. It is in Christ the man that this will be fully revealed, but we have a glimpse of this now in the ministry of Christ the child.

Let us rejoice on the sacred night. Let us rejoice at the coming of our savior, at the birth of our king and our Lord. Let us exalt with the angels in heaven glorifying him. Let our cry truly be glory to God in the highest; But what are crying not been nearly words.  For if we are to truly keep this sacred night, if we are truly to receive Christ as a child, then we must listen to Christ the man. We must listen to what Christ tells us if He is truly God among us if He is truly Emmanuel. We cannot merely adore Him as a child, but we must accept the full man, who He is and what He says to us. And what He says most of all is said not in words, but it actions, and it is said upon the cross.  For the mystery of Christmas is nothing without the mystery of the Passion and of the Resurrection. Christmas means nothing without looking towards Easter. Because Christ was born not merely to live, not merely to teach, not merely to be an example. Christ was born so that he would die the death on the cross, the death by which we would be freed of our sins and begin to enter into that blessed life God desires for us.

Let us not enter back into the cave, then, by returning to our sins, by ignoring Christ and reducing Him to a mere child.  The celebration of Christmas is worthless if we are not desiring to imitate the one in whose birth we rejoice.  Christians, do not reject the name of Christ! Do not reject what Christ has done for you by His birth in Bethlehem and by His re-birth at Calvary! We can certainly return to the dull images and easy comfort of the cave, but we will not be truly alive, truly animated to become what God has desired us to be from the very beginning of creation: the holy people of God on fire with love for Him and for all that He has done and all He has created, most especially our brothers and sisters.

If you have been slack in your Christian life, not attending Mass, not reading the Scriptures, avoiding the reception of the sacraments by which we are conformed to Christ, return to the practice of your faith.  There is no salvation or redemption in anything or anyone else.  Your things cannot save you, your lukewarmness cannot save you, no other religion can save you: It is only Christ and the one Church which He has founded, which He has maintained to this day.  Return to the Church, come back to the merciful and forgiving Father, and be restored to God.  If you are currently practicing your faith, be better.  We can always be more prayerful, more obedient in our duties, more virtuous, more faithful than we are presently.  There is no stopping in our faith: either you are moving forwards or sliding backwards.  Be strengthened by the example of Christ, of His holy mother, and by the saints who have gone before us, so as to achieve the goal of faith: your salvation, your entrance even in a remote way in this life into the glories and the joys that await in Heaven.

Let us rejoice on this night, let us rejoice in this child, but let our rejoicing not be in vain.  Christ is born to us so as to offer us salvation and sanctification, and He has already done the brunt of the work for us in His earthly life.  Ours is to decide: shall we be illuminated by the Light that has come into the world or shall we remain in the darkness of sin, of ignorance, of error, and risk losing that in which our hearts have truly desired?  May each of you have a blessed and merry Christmas, and may the glory of the Christ Child shine upon each one of you in the darkness of this night.