Christmas Homily 2023
CMOQ // BNS // St. John Severna Park
I. Situational Awareness
All of us know the importance of situational awareness, the need we have to see and understand our surroundings. Our most basic instincts are built to identify the threats and problems we face, as also how we should respond to them and avoid them in the future. Situational awareness is crucial, whether we’re making a complex decision or simply parking our car or walking down the street. But our higher powers of faith and reason allow us also to see the opportunities in front of us as well as the needs of those who are around us.
Let us try to place our awareness of difficult situations in their truest light by entering into the situational awareness of Mary and Joseph.
Mary was with child. The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was difficult. In the dead of winter, Joseph could not find a place for them to stay.
Mary ended up giving birth in a crude and barren stable. Yet, aware as they were of the dangers and poverty of their surroundings, Mary and Joseph had an even greater awareness of being surrounded by God’s love. They were aware that God was working in and through a dire situation.
Let us, then, humbly ask to see how God is working in and through situations we face in our world, in our nation, in our Church, and in our personal lives – whether it is interior darkness, or the conflicts and violence that threaten us, or illness and death, or material and spiritual poverty, or struggles with our faith. Let me briefly address these situational challenges so that, we, like Mary and Joseph, may be more keenly alert to how God is present and working in our lives.
II. . . . beginning with the challenge of interior darkness
You know, at this time of year, we are aware of how short the days are. The darkness of winter can be both a symptom and a symbol of a pervasive interior darkness that can affect us, especially at Christmas, as broken relationships and faulty coping mechanisms seem to haunt us. Long ago, the night sky was lit with the glory of God as he who is “who is “God from God and light from light” descended “from the realm of endless day” . . .
to become one of us so as to show us the Father’s love and our true dignity. Let us greet the One who is light for every human heart and ask him to illuminate our interior darkness with his eternal glory.
III. . . . and what do we make of threat of war and violence?
Even as we went about preparing for Christmas, buying and wrapping presents, preparing festive meals, decorating our homes, we could not erase from our awareness how violent and war-torn our world is, whether it is the Holy Land or Ukraine or our own City of Baltimore. We are aware of the pain experienced by hostages, refugees, and grieving families.
But let us also become aware of the angels’ refrain “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.” And let us beg the Prince of Peace for the grace to be peacemakers, and to lead us, our fellow citizens, and our leaders in the ways of peace.
IV. . . . then, there is our awareness of sickness and death
As you know, few things are more difficult at Christmas than being confined to a hospital or nursing home. Chronic and life-threatening illnesses play havoc with our joy at this time of year, whether it is ourselves or our loved ones who are suffering. So too, the death of loved ones weighs heavily upon us at Christmas. This is something I can speak to personally, having recently lost my own mother. We wrestle with the awareness of our fragility and the shortness of life. So let us bring suffering, death, and the questions they create to the stable. Though helpless in a manger, Jesus is the Divine Physician who came to heal our wounds by being wounded and to restore our life by sharing our death and rising from the grave. Come, let us lay at his feet that which is difficult to comprehend or accept, convinced that he has overcome our weakness and has defeated death itself.
V. . . . and what of the material and spiritual poverty that surrounds us?
Well, travelling the length and breadth of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, I see scenes of wealth and poverty, and everything in-between.
In Maryland, as all of us are aware, wealth and poverty exist side-by-side. . . heartbreaking poverty and human need side by side with great prosperity.
Add to that, the spiritual poverty so many suffer from, especially those who feel they are separated from God and the Church. Let us address both material and spiritual poverty by entering into the crude stable where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Aware that the Lord shared our poverty, may we gladly share what we have with poor, console the sorrowing, and protect the vulnerable. Aware that God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to save us, may we ask God to fill our inner poverty with the riches of his truth and love.
VI. . . . and what of our struggles to believe and practice the faith?
If you regularly attend Mass, you are aware of declining numbers at Sunday Mass. We really can’t blame those numbers on COVID; they’ve been declining for decades. Some have left because they no longer agree with Church teachings. Others because of scandal. Still others because of indifference to the faith. Maybe some of you who are here feel that your faith is wavering. And who of us, even the most devout among us, has never doubted? If the darkness of unbelief or the numbness of indifference has overtaken your heart, then listen again to the joyful song of the angels,
share the amazement of the shepherds who announced the glad tidings of the Lord’s birth to others, behold the obedient faith of Mary and Joseph as they adore the Christ-Child, listen and believe as the beloved disciple John announces to us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” –
Let us become deeply aware that Christmas is not about our search for God but rather about the God who has come in search of us!
VII. . . . We are “situated” in God’s abiding love!
We will celebrate Christmas rightly if the humble situation of the stable invades and transforms the situations in which we find ourselves, and more than that, invades our hearts and transforms our lives – not only on Christmas but every day of our lives. Let us peer into the creche to see the One who is Lord of lords and King of kings, and then let us worthily receive him into our hearts in the Eucharist, asking him to dwell in us and to transform us, so that the light might shine in the darkness and that the darkness may not overcome it.
May you have a most blessed and joyous Christmas!