“Do you realize that Mary’s Son is God?” a non-Catholic teenager asked her Catholic friend eagerly. “Did you know that?”

This teenager had just realized the truth.

This story was told by the late Archbishop James F. Carney in his 1987 Christmas message.

That question, he said, is “the question behind all other questions,” the question “the apostles and the evangelists put to their world,” the question that “the Church must and will address to man in the third millennium,” the “prime question that the Church will put to the world in [its] renewed evangelization.”

It is “the question of the year,” he said.

The Vatican is not usually recognized as for its innovation.  Usually when the Holy Father speaks, it is to reaffirm some belief or practice of the past rather than proposing some change in the future.  But this Christmas is different. This Christmas for the first time in its history the Vatican has replaced its traditional manger scene in St. Peter’s square with a radically new one.  And it has turned a lot of heads and raised a lot of questions by doing so.

The traditional manger scene is the one we have here in the church and the one many of you have in your own homes. It is based upon the Gospel of Luke, the gospel we just heard proclaimed.  In it Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem because of the world wide census, Jesus is born in a stable and laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn, and the angels appear to shepherds in the fields announcing the savior’s birth.  We all know that story. But some of us might not know that there is an alternate version of Jesus’ birth which comes from the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew’s Gospel Joseph and Mary do not travel to Bethlehem. Joseph receives a message from an angel to take Mary as his wife. When he does so, Jesus is born in Joseph’s home. Now it is this version, Matthew’s version, that the Vatican has chosen this year to be its Christmas scene.

Long before there was any question about the political correctness of wishing others a “Merry Christmas,” the pastor of the parish of my youth took the occasion every year of telling us why he preferred to wish everyone a “Happy Christmas.” He’d point out that we never wish anyone a “Merry Easter” and would question whether this adjective for Christmas, dating back to the 17th century, was the best one for us to use today. The first printed Christmas card (1843) wished recipients a “Merry Christmas” but in 1823, at the end of A Visit From St. Nicholas (‘Twas the night before…), Clement Moore’s Santa wished all a “Happy Christmas… e‘re he drove out of sight.”

The history, then, is mixed.  Both “merry” and “happy” seem too light and fail to bear the weight of this day’s substance. (In a homily two years ago I suggested wishing folks a Righteous Christmas!)

So what kind of Christmas do we hope and pray our family and friends will have?

• My prayer is that you’ll have a Joyful Christmas…
• And I pray that you’ll have a Peaceful Christmas…
• Finally, I pray that you have a Hopeful Christmas…

Peace is the gift we received on this day of the birth of the messiah. The entire message of Jesus Christ in his ministry is that of forgiveness in order to restore peace. The message of the angels to the shepherds in the fields reechoed the peace heralded by the birth; ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour.’ (Luke 2:14). Peace is the benefit of His birth, a salvation that humanity earnestly yearn especially in the twenty-first century that is characterized by terrifying violence. As beneficiaries of the Christian life, the world expects us to be great ambassadors of peace. Why are human relations so prone to violence? The violence we experience today are the unresolved crisis of human relations. The Christian involvement in evil is classified by S. Mark Heim as a dilemma between a distortion of the faith and the gospel and a natural expression of it. (Heim, Mark: Saved From Sacrifice: A theology of the cross. Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2006: 260). Thus it becomes imperative to reflect on the Christian response to crisis inspired by the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

This is a great time of the year to drive through neighborhoods. It is wonderful seeing all the Christmas lights and decorations. I am sure that many of you have also decorated your houses with lights and nativity scenes, Santas and reindeer and all sorts of displays. Why do we decorate at Christmas? We do this as an expression of our Christmas joy. Joy.

Joy to world. We sing that there is joy because the Savior has come. The world waited for its Savior for ages. In Genesis, Adam and Eve were told that One would come who would crush the head of the serpent with his heal. 1000 years before Christ David heard that his kingdom would be eternal. Later we would realize that the One who would be king forever would come from the line of David. 750 years before Christ, King Ahaz heard a prophecy. Isaiah told him that a virgin would be with child. He did not say that a virgin would get pregnant, there would be nothing exceptional about that, but that a virgin girl would be with child. How could she be with child and still be a virgin? God’s hand had to be here. The prophet said that the child would be called Emmanuel, a name that means God is with His people. The ages waited. The time finally came. It was a little over 2000 years ago. The center of humanity, Jesus the Christ, was born. And the world entered a new age, an age of joy.

Today is the celebration of the greatest joy. A baby is born into the world, but it is not the usual kind of birth. We all know the story of the angels rejoicing. This is, in part, because what they had accepted from before time began when the angels were tested has now come to pass: the eternal, infinite, omnipotent God has become a weak human baby born in time with a finite nature. A virgin is a mother; the Creator is created; the Baby is born in a miraculous manner without the normal opening of the womb. There is much to marvel at in this mystery.

However, what we have to marvel at the most is the depth of the love of God for us. So often we struggle with the question of whether or not God really loves us. After all, we have offended Him so often, we have done so many unloving things, that we think ourselves unlovable. So, Love Himself came to us in a way that we could grasp, in a way that is the reflection of love that all of us can automatically understand. When we look at a baby, the child is the tangible, enfleshed love of the mother and father. This Child is no different. He is the love of God in human form because He is God in human form and God is love.

Remember Bonnie Tyler? Perhaps, many of you would have forgotten that era when big hair-dos were in style and every woman wanted to look like Farah Fawcett (most women today would just count themselves lucky if they still had a few strands of hair on their heads). One of her biggest numbers was the song, “Holding out for a Hero.” Here’s the refrain to that song:

I need a hero, I’m holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero, I’m holding out for a hero ’til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure and it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life!

Even though this is more of a “love song,” it expresses a universal desire- everyone wants a hero.  Everyone, once in a way, needs someone to come to the rescue, salvage the situation, rescue the “maiden-in-distress.” Just look around us today – there’s always someone calling out for a hero – someone who will fix this mess! There is nothing new about this.

Perhaps, this song could be aptly sung by the Israelites in the first reading, for they were “the people that walked in darkness … who lived in a land of deep shadow.” They had been “holding out … ‘til the end of the night.” They had suffered the loss of their kingdom, humiliation at the hands of pagan conquerors…

At Christmas we celebrate God who becomes one among us and shares our human condition in order to help us up. St Ireneaus expresses this strikingly by saying: “God became man so that man can become God.” Indeed, God created human beings in his image and likeness. It’s the vocation of human beings to radiate this divine image. Unfortunately, wounded and disfigured by sin human beings became ashamed of themselves. They couldn’t walk with their head high. They hid themselves. When God asks Adam, that is, humanity: “Where are you?”  He responds, “I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid so I hid myself.” But God does not abandon humanity in the loneliness of shame.

He becomes human and thereby affirms the beauty of humanity; it’s like he’s saying: I’m not ashamed to be like you. Christ, the light for which John the Baptist came as witness, illumines us so that we can see and appreciate better our beauty. That’s a great gesture of solidarity we celebrate at Christmas. We celebrate great love out-pouring to those who are wounded. That leads us to another question that we ought to ask ourselves.

Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus. The decorations, the trees, food, the season’s hustle and bustle should not distract us from the central message. When all these are removed, what remains? A very humble birth story of poor Jesus into a poor family of Joseph and Mary: two poor people who could not find any hospital or any hotel to pass the night. The great mystery of God’s coming physically into our history, the incarnation of the eternal Son of God was to take place in a poor stable. They benefited from the generosity of the animals who gave up their manger for the baby Jesus. Their first visitors were the poor and neglected shepherds. Despite this poor scenario, they had the best choirs, the angelic one singing: Gloria in excelsis Deo!!!

From its very beginning, the Christmas message is clear. The love of God is available to all. In effect “God’s grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race” Titus 2:11. God revealed himself first and foremost to the poor, weak and the disadvantaged. The poor manger in which Jesus was born is an indication of our need to see grace and goodness in the most deprived of people. It is a clarion call for us to be kind and learn to be sensitive to the many needs of the poor who are crying out for our generosity and caring. The first Christmas was indeed a poor one, not like the shinning decorations and heavy expenditures we have today!

The American preacher Norman Vincent Peale tells the story about a young woman working as a missionary teacher in Africa. One Christmas Eve a little boy proudly brings her a crudely wrapped gift. The teacher is surprised. This little boy is poor. What could he possibly give?

The teacher unwraps the present and within the crumpled brown paper finds an exquisite seashell. The missionary, knowing that the only place to find such shells is many rugged miles away, expresses her enthusiastic appreciation. “Dear boy,” she says, “you’ve traveled so far to bring me such a wonderful present.”

At first the child appears surprised by her reaction, but his eyes brighten and he smiles widely. “Oh, teacher,” he says, “long walk part of gift.”

Norman Vincent Peale then tells about his wife and him preparing their church for Christmas. It seems everything goes wrong, people are in sour moods. They want to throw up their hands. Silence follows, they look at each and say simultaneously, “Long walk – part of gift.”

Mary and Joseph must have assumed as they set out for Bethlehem that they would be able to get lodging for travelers (Luke 2:4-5). Since they did not have Airbnb, or Trivago or hotels.com, they were not able to book ahead and alas when they arrived, they had no place to stay. Their hopes were dashed just as the hopes of many people all over the world for Christmas this year have been dashed due to Covid (2020). Mary and Joseph must have felt isolated, just like many all over the world this Christmas. The only people nearby that night were the local essential workers, the shepherds (Luke 2:8). Then matters got worse when sometime after Jesus was born, there was danger and the threat of death since the visit of the wise men provoked jealousy in Herod (Matt 2). So, the first Christmas for Mary and Joseph entailed dashed plans, isolation, danger, and threat of death. Not altogether different for many people around the world this Christmas.

But in the midst of all this chaos of the first Christmas was Jesus. In the midst of the chaos of Christmas this year, is Jesus. Hopefully we will keep him right there in the middle and he will not get pushed to the side because of the chaos caused by Covid. A baby brings a smile to everyone’s face. 

Caesar demanded a census and the whole world was in motion and turmoil.  People and families around the empire travelling to their own town.  The emperor had spoken and therefore it had to be!

Joseph and Mary – humble, poor, obedient to authority – travel to Bethlehem, even with Mary near child-birth.  They register for the census but the gospel does not specify one thing; did they register before the birth of Christ or after?  Did their census notation say, “one Jewish couple expecting a child” or “one Jewish couple with newborn male”?  I tend to believe that Joseph and Mary registered with the census before the birth of Jesus because it would be consistent with God’s way of working throughout scripture.

Let the powers of the world flex their muscle and show all their strength.  Peoples need to travel, life needs to be interrupted, Caesar Augustus wants a census!  God laughs.  God comes silently and humbly amidst all the turmoil of the time.  God even uses the great emperor’s project to accomplish His plan.  Who today remembers the census that Caesar ordered?  Yet all time and history celebrates the birth of the son of Mary.  Christ coming after the census is fulfilled demonstrates who is really the Lord of history.

The crib, the hangings and the carols ringing in our ears, remind us of what a special night this is. On this night was born a child who revealed God to the world in the endearing weakness of a baby emerging from his mother’s womb, crying for milk to nourish his body and for love to nourish his soul, and surrounded, not by the important and powerful, but by shepherds, by men and women accustomed to respond to nature in simple, ordinary ways. The image that comes again and again in the readings of the Mass is that of light. The First Reading promises that those walking in darkness would see a great light. The Gospel reveals this light shattering the darkness of the night sky as the glory of God shines on the face of a tiny infant. God offers this gift of light to each of us here tonight and to all those we love.

The high and mighty eventually caught on. By the year 500, the church made Christmas a special feast. Three decades later, the Roman Empire followed suit. Commemorating the birth of Jesus spread throughout Europe; and by 600, Augustine of Canterbury baptized ten thousand converts on that holy day. For almost a millennium, Christmas was the special feast of the poor, the common people, the little ones.

By the sixteenth century, however, with its political, national, and ecclesiastical wars, Christmas was disappearing from many places. The Puritans condemned and abolished Christmas as something pagan and idolatrous. They even tried to make observing it a sin. In 1642 services were banned. No decorations were allowed. Two years later Christmas was declared a time of fast and penance. In 1647 Parliament, that corporate Grinch, totally banned Christmas. Markets were ordered to stay open. Longer work hours were enforced. The little people did not like this at all. There were riots. Ten thousand people demonstrated in Kent.

This year in the midst of Advent and preparing for Christmas, in a rare free moment, I rediscovered the cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. You all remember that cartoon, don’t you? It is a classic. Charlie Brown is feeling depressed that Christmas is here and he can’t seem to get into the spirit. Linus has no sympathy for him so Charlie decides to talk to Lucy about it. In a rare moment in these cartoons where Lucy actually tries to lift Charlie’s spirits, for a fee of course, she puts Charlie in charge of the Christmas play (where she will play the role of the Christmas Queen naturally); however, when he is given the responsibility of picking out a Christmas tree, he can’t get even that right. Of all the trees, he picks a dying twig and the kids make fun of him. There are two moments in that cartoon that touched me. The first was in response to Charlie Brown’s question, “Can anyone tell me what Christmas really means?” the lights go down and Linus reverently quotes the Gospel of Luke recalling the birth of Christ. That was moving and a very good reminder. The second moment in the cartoon that was touching was when after Charlie Brown thinks he accidently killed the Christmas tree he bought, the kids come and decorate it for him, making it beautiful. The cartoon ends with everyone singing Hark the Harold Angels Sing. Wonderful!

Now why would I mention this cartoon tonight? Although I hope it is true that many of us are having a merry Christmas, I think it is a fair to say that a number of us can feel a little like Charlie Brown this time of year, despite our best efforts. Whether it is a situation at home or a situation at work or just something going on in the soul right now, sometimes we can just feel numb or just indifferent to the meaning of Christmas. I think the remedy for this is what the Church is proclaiming to us tonight.

[Vigil Mass] Isaiah proclaims in our first reading, “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.” …

[Midnight Mass] Isaiah proclaims in our first reading, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone…

[Mass During the Day] Our Gospel from John proclaims, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…