The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
Christmas 2020 is incredibly special. In fact, I believe that this is the most meaningful Christmas in recent times. I am not being cynical. For, if Christmas is the story of God gently touching a tragic and broken world, at no other time in recent history have we needed to experience divine touch more deeply than we do now. If Christmas is the story of God embracing the world with God’s redeeming love, then, “dear God, we need you right now!” There have been tragedies before, but a tragedy that has affected the entire globe simultaneously is new for us. Globally, COVID-19 has infected 78 million people and claimed 1.73 million lives. In our nation it has infected 18.5 million people and claimed 326 thousand lives. Perhaps, some of you present in this church or participating via live-stream have been tragically affected by the pandemic. It seems awkward, then, that I should wish you a Merry Christmas, but I do. For, if Christmas is the story of God coming to save us, then, today of all days, we remember that “Jesus” means, “God saves!” He is “Emmanuel,” God with us! It is indeed Christmas.
My homily this Christmas does not have one single theme. Here are three random thoughts that I wish to share with you. May you find Christmas inspiration and hope in them.
- Living Life from a Different Place. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many things. One of the most common thought I have heard is that the pandemic has taught us to focus on that which is truly important. For me, the most important realization I have had is that I must live life from the different place than I have lived thus far. Let me explain. If I said asked you, “Where is your heart?” where would you point to? If I asked you, “Where is your mind?” where would you point to? If I asked you “Show me your strength,” where would you point to? And if I asked you to point to your soul, where would you point to?” The pandemic taught me something very important – that even though I cannot point to the exact place where my soul is, that is precise place from where I must live my life. For 54 years I lived life from my mind and my heart. But I have now learnt that life must be lived from the soul. John of the Cross taught me that. The soul is the sacrament of God’s presence within the person. In there, it is Christmas all the time. Living from the soul teaches us to look at life, the earth, all creation, and indeed every human in the way God sees it. In God eyes, the creation is still beautiful, and in spite of it all, humanity is still good and worth redeeming. That really is the Christmas story, is it not? – that God came to embrace a broken world and to restore it with love to its original beauty and dignity? This Christmas, I am not sure what your focus has been. If there is one thing that I might invite you to do, is to invite the Christ child not only into your hearts and your homes, but into your soul. The Christ child invites us to be touched by God in our soul; to find divine love in the deepest part of our soul; and then to live life from the soul. This is the real Christmas.
- I said earlier that the soul is the sacrament of God’s presence in the human person. Let me take that thought a little further. Just as the soul gives us our humanity, we could also say that Jesus’ incarnation further enhances the dignity of all humanity collectively as the human race. Perhaps we could say that Jesus is soul of the human race. Christmas invites us to look at all humanity and every human person with the realization that humanity is Christ’s dwelling place. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). Once again, I am asking that we live life from the soul. The soul of humanity is Jesus. With Jesus as the soul of humanity, we look at humanity with Jesus’ eyes. Tragically, the pandemic was also the time when our nation was traumatized by worst racial unrests. Racism is anti-Christmas. Racism suggests that Jesus came to save only some. Racism suggests that God loves some more than others. But, if Christmas is the story of God embracing all of humanity, then we must be a different people. Unfortunately, it is not only racism that destroys us. Across the globe, on numerous levels, hate for people who are different or think differently has been legitimized and institutionalized. The Christmas story is radically the opposite. Christmas is an invitation to love all of humanity in the way God loves humanity. Christmas is an invitation to look at all of humanity and every human person worthy of being Christ’s manger. Please, let it be Christmas.
- Let Us Dream. Amidst self-realizations and other realizations, I also looked for strength, hope, and courage to fulfil my priestly ministry. I found hope in two places. First, the writings of John of the Cross. I offered an eight-week series on contemplative prayer with John of the cross and it taught me to live life from the soul.
On a more pragmatic level, though, I found hope in the writings of Pope Francis. During Pope Francis published an encyclical titled, “Fratelli Tutti.” More recently, a book attributed to him, “Let us Dream: A Path to a Better Future” was also published. The thoughts in both these works are many, are deep, and they call for systemic changes. Let me focus on two convictions of Pope Francis that gave me hope, strength, and courage. First, Pope Francis’ makes an impassioned plea to the global community to work together for the common good. Pope Francis says that we need to choose fraternity over individualism. He calls us to set aside individualism, narcissism, discouragement, pessimism, and “existential myopia,” i.e., “holding on to something we’re afraid to let go.” On the contrary, he invites us to have a sense of belonging to each other and to the whole of humanity.
The one who opens this possibility is a little child, whom we welcome in our midst as the Savior of the world. He is not just the Savior of one nation, or one race, or one group of people, but the whole world. The Christmas miracle is a global event! This is the moment when we choose to work together for a better future. The Christmas event demands this of us.
Second, Pope Francis invites us to look at the world from a certain vantage point. In his latest book, Let us Dream, he says, “You have to go to the edges of existence if you want to see the world as it is… You have to make for the margins to find a new future. When God wanted to regenerate creation, He chose to go to the margins—to places of sin and misery, of exclusion and suffering, of illness and solitude—because they were also places full of possibility….” In these words, Pope invites us to see the world as God would see - from the peripheries. To make his point, Pope Francis reflects on God’s involvement in human history. “God is never indifferent,” Pope Francis says, but rather, “God knows, feels, and comes running out to look for us!” This precisely is the Christmas story, is it not? Christmas reveals a God of the peripheries. Jesus was born on the periphery, his family had to flee to the peripheries, he was baptized on the periphery, he ministered on the periphery, he ate and drank with people on the periphery, and was put to death on the periphery. It’s the story that changed the course of human history. Today, as we celebrate the pandemic Christmas, let us dream. May Christ lead us, as Pope Francis says, to a better future.
Most of all, our inspiration and hope lies on the altar at every Eucharist. Here the word becomes flesh. May this Christ be in our soul and in our world. May we find that every place and every person is Christ’s manger.
- Fr. Satish Joseph