Wise Men (and Women) Still Seek Him

Christmas Eve Mass During the Night

Cycle C

Is 9:1-6

Ti 2:11-14

Lk 2:1-14

Why are you here? What has compelled you to come out on a cold, snowy night to be here in this place at this time with these people? You don’t have to be here. You could be home snuggled up by the fire with a drink in your hand watching It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time. But you’re here. You’ve come from all over the world to spend the holidays in Park City, and even if you are not Catholic or have not been to church in a long time, you have chosen to be here in this place, tonight, with us. Why? Why will there be almost 5000 people at the Masses tonight and tomorrow here in the little town of Park City in a parish of only about 1300 families?

What is it about Christmas that makes us want to be in church? What is it that compels us to be here? Is it tradition? Is it something that you have always just done since you were a child? Did your parents drag you to Mass every Christmas even though you’d rather have been home staring at the fireplace, waiting for Santa? And now, through the years those memories have softened so that they live in your mind and heart as warm nostalgia? And so you come? I know of many non-Catholics who go to midnight Mass every year, just because they love the quiet and the smells and the bells of that particular service. They don’t attend their own churches, they come to ours. It wouldn’t be Christmas for them without it. And that’s ok.

Maybe you are here because it means a lot to your spouse, and that’s wonderful. Christmas is all about giving to those we love the most, and the gift of our time is the most precious. You may not fully appreciate how meaningful your presence here is to them, and they may not fully appreciate the magnitude of your gift to them. Thank you for giving of yourself here tonight.

Maybe you’re like the shepherds in tonight’s gospel, who experienced something extraordinary happen in their lives that they did not fully understand, and have come to see what it’s all about. Maybe it’s just curiosity. Has something happened in your life this past year that’s got you thinking? Or are you just following the crowd and are here just because everyone else was coming?

Maybe you’re like the Magi, men of science who witnessed something inexplicable in the sky and left hearth and home to discover its meaning. Maybe you have been searching for the meaning of life for a long time and need to check it all out. Is this where you will find the answers you have been looking for? And when you find them, will you fall down on your knees in homage, and give the gift of yourself in return?

Are you like the innkeeper who stuck Mary and Joseph out in the stable, who are wondering what all the fuss is about? Why all the noise and hubbub? It sure seems like a lot of hype and over-commercialization. You’d sure like them to keep it down a bit so you can get some sleep.

Maybe you’re like the angels, who have been waiting for so very long for a savior to set things right in the world, and now that he is here you cannot contain your joy at his coming? You come here because it is central to your lives, because you understand what Christmas really is all about, and you cannot keep it to yourself. Jesus could not have been born quietly, by himself, without a community around him. We are all born, live, die and are saved together.

I don’t know, maybe you’re all of these or none of these. It doesn’t really matter why those folks came to see the Christ child; they came. And I think that the real reason so many people come to worship at Christmas is that deep down, in spite of all the intense pressure to make Christmas all about Santa and turkey and buying and receiving just the right presents, we all know that that’s not what it’s all about. We all know the true meaning of Christmas. We all know that we all need a savior, and that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to us to become one of us so that we could become like him.

We come because God wants us to come, and whether we recognize it or acknowledge it, that’s why we also want to come. The need for God is buried within us from our conception, and the important thing is not why we come, but that we come. We can work out the details later.

We know that no matter what we’ve done or what has happened to us this past year, for good or bad, it all comes down to that. I think that we all need to have this time to look at our lives, take stock in our actions and their meaning, and spend a little bit of time with our creator. Here we can escape what the world has done to Christmas and re-root ourselves in what is important. God, our families, and our salvation. Take away all the decorations and music and presents and such, and that’s what is left.

My hope for you is that you can find that meaning in your lives, and that your time here at St. Mary’s will be one of peaceful contemplation of exactly what your God has done for you in giving you the Christmas gift of himself. We often hear the saying, “Keep Christ in Christmas”. My prayer for you is that you keep Christ in yourself.

Promises, Promises

4^th Sunday of Advent

Cycle C

Mi 5:1-4a

Heb 10:5-10

Lk 1:39-45

“Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

What had the angel Gabriel promised to Mary when he announced that she had been chosen to become the mother of the Lord? Did he say that she would be rich and powerful because of her son? Did he promise that life would be easy? Did he promise anything to her at all? All he said to her was that she was highly favored by God and had been chosen to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit. He said nothing else about her. All his promises were not about her but about her son.

He would be the Son of God, and he would save God’s people from their sins. Mary really got nothing out of it, other than the knowledge that she was doing the will of God. No riches, no power, no prestige was promised. In fact, it isn’t until we hear the encounter in today’s gospel that anyone says that this is a good thing for Mary. It is Elizabeth who calls her blessed. It is Elizabeth who says how wonderful it is that she said yes to God’s call. And of course Elizabeth would think this, of course she would know how blessed it is to have received God’s promise. She herself had been blessed with a child, which had been promised to her by God himself. Elizabeth knew God’s blessings firsthand. She had her proof that God was trustworthy, because he had answered her prayers.

Mary did not have that assurance yet. The first thing she did when Gabriel left her was to hurry to check it out for herself. The angel had told her that her cousin who had been barren was with child, and that God himself was responsible. Mary had just conceived, she was not showing yet and she had no early pregnancy test. She hurried off to see if it was all true. If Elizabeth was pregnant then she must be, too, and all the angel had said would come to pass. If not, then who knows what she had experienced.

The promises that Elizabeth says God made to Mary were not just for Mary personally. As a member of the human race Mary would also benefit from the fulfillment of God’s promise, but God’s promises were of old. Beginning with our first parents, who chose to turn away from the will of God, we have been separated from full union with our creator. Because of that there has been untold suffering, misery and death in the world that has affected and will continue to affect us all. Left to our own devices there would be no hope. But God is all about hope, so much so that he chose to be the very instrument of our salvation from ourselves.

God has never given up on us even when we have given up on him. From the very beginning, when we turned away from him, God has promised to set things right again. He sent Abraham, Moses and the prophets to proclaim the promise of hope. Then he himself came to earth to fulfill those promises. Through a lowly peasant girl in a small backwater country, whose hope in the promise overcame her fear and doubt at what was happening to her. Because nothing is impossible for God.

The angel didn’t promise Mary that there would be no more suffering, no more pain, no more war or violence, no more hatred. He just promised that the Lord would come to earth. In fact, his very coming would incite suffering, pain, violence and hatred against him and his disciples. He didn’t promise some utopian vision of a perfect life. He said it would be hard, he said it would entail the cross. But he said it was worth it.

We have turned Christmas into a vision of the perfect time of year, with perfectly dressed and coifed people singing perfect carols around perfect Christmas trees all oohing and ahhing about perfect presents and perfect feasts, because that is what we hope it will be. We celebrate Christmas every year because we need to keep hearing the promise and how it has been fulfilled. For one brief time each year we can escape from the horror and despair of the world with all its violence and suffering, and we can remember that it all turns out right in the end.

The promise of Christmas is not that we will be nice to each other once a year, that “Christmas spirit” we hear so much about. It’s not about a picture perfect day. The promise of Christmas is that no matter what we do to screw it all up every other day of the year, God came to earth to set things right again. For all of us, for all time.

Just the sound of the voice of the Mother of God could make John the Baptist leap for joy in the womb. We will also feel such joy when we are in the presence of our Lord. Blessed are we who also believe that the promises made by the Lord to us would be fulfilled, because hope is the greatest blessing we could ever have. And He shall be called Immanuel, God is With Us. King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace.