25th December 2008 - Christmas Day
There is always something very magical about the early hours of Christmas morning. The world is hushed, silent before the crib. In the middle of the night God has tore the heavens open and come down among us. Mary is cradling the child of promise, the one Gabriel had said so much about. We ourselves can only be silent before the great mystery of God made man.
When we leave here today, we will be immersed in the joy that Christmas brings, family, presents, food and drink, phone calls made and people visiting. However, today also calls for us to be grateful for what God has done in giving us his Son. Sometimes we can over romanticize the scene at Bethlehem. You can be sure it was not as ideal as Christmas cards seem to make it. It was a difficult birth, no room at the inn, no doctors, no nurses, no mobile phones, no family, nothing but the warm breath of the animals for comfort. Yet this birth, this coming tells us so much about our God. He is not remote, uncaring, or indifferent as we often are to him and to one another. He is Emmanuel, God with us, all the way in good times and in bad. If only we believed this and took it to heart.
Today in the middle of all our celebrations, let us leave some time aside to pray, either alone or with our families. Thank God today for Jesus, and for one another. In the words of St Ephraim
"LORD, give us leave this day to celebrate thy true birthday, of which the present festival puts us in mind. This day is like thyself: it is the friend of man. Year by year it returns throughout the centuries, growing old with the aged, renewing itself with the new-born child. Year by year it comes to us, passes, and then returns, full of the old magic. It knows that human nature cannot do without it; like thyself, it comes to the rescue of our imperiled race. The whole round earth is thirsting for thy birthday, Lord. In that one happy day are contained all the ages to come; it is one, yet it multiplies itself to infinity. May it then resemble thee again this year, and make peace between heaven and earth"
24th December 2008 - Christmas Vigil Mass
Christmas Eve always held a special place in my heart. My sister and I would go to confession in the early evening and we would pass all the houses with their welcoming candles lighting in the windows, and it was easy to think about the journey of Mary and Joseph that first Christmas. Despite the passing of the years the magic of this night remains. You are all here tonight for many and varying reasons, and yet somehow we are all united by our captivation of a story that despite the passing of Twenty Centuries has lost none of it's originality and wonder.
Christmas is about God becoming one of us, his birth in a stable because there was no room at the Inn. It is about the coming of the light in the night of the world, the people who in the words of the Prophet Isaiah have walked in darkness, but who have now seen a great light. This coming of God was not in a majestic procession, but as gently as the dew falling on the grass, a baby born to a young girl who scarcely could understand what was happening to her. Over the Centuries artists have painted beautiful images of the stable of Bethlehem, many of which adorn our Christmas Cards. Yet, they fail to give an accurate description of what it was really like. The God who flung the galaxies into existence, who existed before even the Big Bang had nowhere to place his head, save that of a stable inhabited by the animals. And still today much of the world especially Western Europe seeks to remove his inspirations from the face of the earth.
Why did God choose to come to us as he did when he could have come much easier on the clouds of heaven? The answer is because he wants us to love him, not to fear him. Take a look into a baby's eyes and all they want is love. See how even the hardest of men melt before the crib of a baby. The stooping down of God to humanity on that first Christmas Night was but the beginning of a much deeper self emptying. The body Mary cradled in Bethlehem she would cradle again after his horrific death. However the message of the baby and the man were the same, a message he wants to repeat again tonight to each one of us, 'don't give up, because you are loved'. Don't allow yourselves to be worried by dire economic forecasts, don't allow the truths of faith to be eclipsed, and don't forget God in good times and in bad.
Christmas is a great family time, a time for celebration, a time above all to look back with fondness and forward with hope. I wish you all the joy that Mary felt when she cradled her baby that First Christmas. In the words of St Ephraim
"LORD, give us leave this day to celebrate thy true birthday, of which the present festival puts us in mind. This day is like thyself: it is the friend of man. Year by year it returns throughout the centuries, growing old with the aged, renewing itself with the new-born child. Year by year it comes to us, passes, and then returns, full of the old magic. It knows that human nature cannot do without it; like thyself, it comes to the rescue of our imperilled race. The whole round earth is thirsting for thy birthday, Lord. In that one happy day are contained all the ages to come; it is one, yet it multiplies itself to infinity. May it then resemble thee again this year, and make peace between heaven and earth"
|
 |
Homilies Archive
2009 HOMILIES
25th December 2008
Christmas
21st December 2008
14th December 2008
8th December 2008
Immaculate Conception
7th December 2008
2nd Sunday of Advent
30th November 2008
1st Sunday of Advent
23rd November 2008
Christ the King
16th November 2008
2nd November 2008
All Souls
1st November 2008
All Saints
26th October 2008
12th October 2008
5th October 2008
28th September 2008
21st September 2008
14th September 2008
7th September 2008
31st August 2008
24th August 2008
17th August 2008
15th August 2008
Assumption
10th August 2008
3rd August 2008
20th July 2008
13th July 2008
29th June 2008
22nd June 2008
1st June 2008
23rd March 2008
Easter Sunday
22nd March 2008
Easter Vigil
2nd March 2008
24th February 2008
17th February 2008
10th February 2008
|
