25 December 2024 – Christmas Day (Year C)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

Are you excited about Christmas? Yes? Very excited, I hope.

Well, Christmas bring a sense of joy, a sense of excitement, a sense of newness in everything that we do. And very often, we are so busy with so many things. But do we take time and take stock of that journey that we are taking towards Christmas?

And today, as you come and celebrate Christmas Day, you said just now you are excited, you are happy but that journey that you take also involves people as well. People in your family, people in your community, people all around us and people who are in the margins. So I would like to ask you do you know or have you wished ‘Merry Christmas‘ to the person seated next to you? If you have not, can we do that? Okay, now you can say from one corner,  you can say ‘Merry Christmas‘ to the other corner. Right good.

Now the reason why we need to embrace that journey of Christmas is not to lose sight of those around us that we are journeying with. And as we begin this whole celebration of Christmas, this whole journey that we took from Advent, preparing ourselves to where we are today, it is to go back to that simple story of what is expressed at the crib.

And here we see how God chose to remain close to His people, even though whatever circumstances that they have gone through. And that gives them reason to hope, that gives them reason to find love from God and to acknowledge that God never, never, never abandons us. That this whole and the simple story of the incarnation of Christmas makes us realise that we are never, never far from God.

As you can look at the crib with all its imperfection, with all its limitation, God chose to make His dwelling in the crib, in the manger, so that we can find hope, so that we can find our meaning and purpose of life. And Jesus become the centre of our hope.

Our Readings yesterday speak about how Mary and Joseph goes to Bethlehem. And when they go to Bethlehem, they find that inn and they are unable to find a place in that inn. And after not being able to find a place in the inn, they go this little manger to give birth. And after giving birth, you see that Mary and Joseph wrapped Jesus in this swaddling clothes and laid Him there.

And here we see, dear friends, that whole mystery, that whole simple story of salvation makes us realise of how God chooses to come and enter into our human history and become part of our life. And today’s Reading speaks about that simple story but in a different perspective.

And the Second Reading of today says:
At various times in the past, and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the last days, He has spoken to us through His Son and the Son that He has appointed to inherit everything and to whom He made everything there is.

And here, dear friends, the scripture reminds us that after that whole mystery of the incarnation, we need to take time to reflect what actually happened. And when we look at our own journey, very often we are busy doing so many things. And I am sure coming together as a family to celebrate Christmas can also be very distracting because there are so many things to do, so much of gifts to prepare, so much of eating to do. But all these, dear friends, removes us from the centrality of what we celebrate – the centrality of Jesus in the manger.

And we need to understand that that mystery of salvation that God blesses us with, the mystery of the incarnation is the mystery of God’s closeness to each and every one of us. In that simple story, God tells us that He has been there all through that journey of human history, all through our own human history that we are never, never forgotten by Him. But in our own hopelessness and our helplessness, God chose to make a dwelling so that we can find hope, we can restore our hope in Him.

And our Gospel today as well, dear friends, is beautiful. If you have time, take time to read the Gospel because that whole Gospel invites us to look at the whole mystery or the simple mystery of the incarnation in a different light all together. And it takes a perspective from God in His vision of love for humanity.

And when we are able to pause, to take time to reflect actually what has happened, then we are able to make connections, we are able to find our purpose and our meaning and we come to a deeper realisation that God has indeed been faithful, not only in history of salvation but also in our own history – of how we, imperfect that we are, God chooses to make a dwelling in your heart.

And when we are able to embrace that with a heart of gratitude, of what God has done for us in our lives, in our community, then we are able to become messengers of hope.

And in yesterday’s Gospel, once the child was born, the angels appeared to the shepherds. And as they were terrified, it says:
Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David, a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. Here is a sign that you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And what the angel told the shepherds, dear friends, are simple events of life. Simple but yet profound. That simple birth of that child wrapped in swaddling clothes must speak to us too. That even in the simple-ness and insignificant moments of our lives, God chooses to make a dwelling there.

And as I reflect on the parish and my own life and my own journey, there are so many, many moments that we can be grateful if we are able to take time and take stock and to look at that whole experiences that we go through in life with gratitude. 

And today, on Christmas, let us begin with that heart of gratitude. To be able to recognise that everything that we have, our family, our community, the people whom we love, are all blessings from God. And we must begin that with a heart of gratitude. Yes, we will have disagreements. We will have disillusionment sometimes. And because of burdens of finances, because of our worries, of our future, many of these things can cloud our mind and distract us from focusing our attention on what we celebrate.

And as I reflect and look at the parish, a parish which comes together to do everything they can to see with that greater vision of how God is working. And when we are able to look at everyone as a blessing and when we are able to see everyone as people who are good in the side of God, then we are able to approach life differently.

So today, dear friends, as we celebrate Christmas, let us begin this journey of hope. And as we embark on this Jubilee Year of Hope next year, 2025, and the theme for the Jubilee Year of Hope is Pilgrim of Hope, we must recognise that as we embark on that journey, that we must begin that journey as a pilgrim, not as a tourist.

And if we are a pilgrim on that journey, our focus must always be centred on Jesus who is our hope. And we must allow Jesus to clear the path, to enlighten the path before us.

And as we move in confidence, trusting that He is there together with us, even though we may feel otherwise, but we know and we are assured that all through history that God has been close to us, that God has been there in whatever circumstances that people have gone through. And that is the celebration of Christmas. The celebration of Christmas hope that makes us realise that God is with us.

So today, dear friends, as we celebrate this whole mystery of the incarnation, let us be reminded that as we are here today, you come and receive the message of the Gospel. To become proclaimers of hope, to become messengers of hope, to declare to the world:
Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men of goodwill and who enjoys God’s favour.

And you and I, as the Responsorial Psalm says today:
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God.
The journey of going to the ends of the earth, dear friends, did not end. We continue that journey to bring that message of hope, of Jesus, to everyone. And you and I are gifted, are favoured, are blessed, are graced to enter into this moment of becoming that messengers of hope for Jesus.

And I pray, dear friends, that as we celebrate this Christmas joy, the joy and the excitement that we experience, that we too may bring that joy of encountering Jesus at that Eucharist and bring it to everyone whom you will meet, today and every day.

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