Homily for Christmas Mass During the Day

At Christmas, Jesus, who is close to the Father’s heart, comes to embrace us and welcome us home.

I have Mass on Christmas Day at St. Isidore @ 8:30 am.

frjoedailey@gmail.com

May the blessings of Christmas be yours in abundance this day and throughout the New Year.

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him, he gave power to become children of God. To those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation, nor by human choice, nor by a man's decision, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. 

John testified to him and cried out, saying, This is he, of whom I said the one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me. From his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace. Because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

In the beginning, in the silence of darkness, God spoke, and there was light. We don't really see light, but in the light we can see. “The true light which enlightens everyone has come into the world.” On Christmas morning we come together in the light that the darkness has not overcome. 

At midnight, we proclaimed the Gospel of St. Luke, which is filled with characters. Caesar Augustus, Quirinius the governor, Mary and Joseph, shepherds keeping watch, and the heavenly hosts. But there are few words spoken. Mary and Joseph do not say anything. The only voices we hear are the angels. “You who sang creation's story / now proclaim Messiah's birth.” Neither Luke nor Matthew invent dialogue for their nativity scenes. No need. Sight speaks for itself. 

John is inviting us to see this word that “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” God has put skin on and moved into the neighborhood. In Jesus, we see the human face of God. There's nothing God wouldn't do, know where God won't go, nothing God won't endure, even the loss of God's beloved Son, that we might know that we are the beloved of God. This is the heart of John's audacious gospel. In Jesus, we receive a love letter written in human flesh and blood. The God who created the vast cosmos in the beginning continues to sustain the universe even now. God's unconditional love for each and every one of us is more than we can imagine. 

The final verse in today's gospel paints a beautiful picture. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him. The phrase, at the Father's side, is not a very helpful translation. In the Greek, it is literally, the Son is into the bosom or embrace of the Father. While no one has seen God, Jesus apparently knows where to lay his head. The Son knows how to listen to the heartbeat of his Father. 

There's a scene in the Gospel of Luke that I think helps us to see this picture. We're in chapter 15, the story that we call the Prodigal Son. You'll remember that the younger son demanded his inheritance and went off to a distant land, where he squandered everything. He began to be in need, but no one gave him anything. He remembered with longing the abundance of his father's house while he himself was starving. He prepared a little speech that he hoped would at least get him in the door. He couldn't come home as son, but he hoped he could at least return as a hired hand – and eat. 

But the old man upstaged him. Seeing him a long way off, he ran to him and embraced him. We can imagine that the son is totally overwhelmed by this rather surprising reception. The son is hungry, not repentant, but he's moving in the right direction towards his father. Even through his imperfection, he's embraced by the father. The father opens his arms, and the son receives his embrace. 

Have you ever been embraced by someone from whom you've been separated? An embrace that expresses a love that we don't deserve but is given anyway? In the embrace, we don’t see the other’s face just yet, but we are close to the other’s heart; we hear their heart beat. In that moment we receive the other's love in such a way that it makes us realize almost instantly the ways that our own love has been insufficient, how we have not been faithful to our own selves.

Jesus is the forgiveness and the feast. Wrapping us in love, ringing us round with joy! Celebrate me home, as beloved son, beloved daughter. In the language of John's Christmas gospel, “to all who received him, he gave power to become children of God.” 

At Christmas, Jesus, who is close to the Father's heart, comes to embrace us and welcome us home. The Dutch spiritual writer Henri Nouwen imagines that Jesus himself became something of a prodigal son for our sakes. He left the house of his heavenly father, came to a foreign country, gave away all that he had, and returned through a cross to his father's house. All of this he did not as a rebellious son, but as the obedient son sent to bring home all the lost children of God. 

Jesus is the prodigal son of the prodigal father, who gave away everything the father had entrusted to him so that you and I could become like him and return with him, home, to the father's house. 

The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us Without touch, God is a monologue, an idea, a philosophy. God must touch and be touched. The Eucharist we receive this Christmas Day is God's physical embrace, God's touch. All who receive him become children of God.