Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Scranton
HOMILY
The Solemnity of Christmas – December 25, 2011
Year after year, we hear the story of Christmas. We meet Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem. We feel the uneasiness in their hearts as they move from door to door, trying to find a place where Mary could rest. We know that their journey will take them not to an inn, but eventually to a stable – a barn – and their child will be born in the same place where animals feed.
For some, what we remember this night redounds to being merely a touching story – a heartwarming tradition – a tale to tell from one generation to the next. To those who search for meaning in their lives, however – to people of faith who believe that there is more to this world than that which we can see or touch – the story has the power to change lives and to fill them – fill us – with the very power of God.
Consider for a moment Saint Luke’s gospel version of the birth of Jesus that was just proclaimed. Let’s take that familiar story apart just a bit to discover how it speaks anew to our lives this Christmas day.
Through the miraculous work of God, a cave used as a barn becomes the dwelling place of God. A stable in a backwater town – a shelter for animals, filled with grit and stench – one of the messiest and dirtiest of places – a warehouse for old, useless things – is transformed by the birth of a child into the holiest of shrines, the most sacred of places.
Think about the stable where Jesus was born. It becomes a metaphor for our lives, doesn’t it? In so many ways, our lives are stables of a kind. They are filled with joy – and pain – and tensions – and mess – aren’t they? Just as Jesus’ birth transformed a Bethlehem stable into a sacred place, because of his birth, every human heart has the potential to be changed – transformed into a sacred place – the kingdom of God within us.
But there is more that we hear from Saint Luke’s gospel. Once Jesus is born, notice who is first given the privilege of hearing of his birth. Who’s lined up in the manger scene today? Not the Magi. They didn’t arrive for days. Typical of Luke, the poorest and most disregarded of Jewish society are raised up. The shepherds are the first to hear of the birth of Jesus. Yet, unlike the images of the shepherds that adorn the manger scenes in our cathedral and in your homes, the shepherds of Bethlehem, two thousand years ago, were a far cry from the gentle souls whose images stand before us today. They were tough, earthy characters who fearlessly used their clubs to defend their flocks from wolves and other wild animals. They were ill-bred, crude and broken individuals. Hardly the types any of us would place at the savior’s birth.
But despite the fact that they were on the margins of society, it was to the shepherds that God first revealed the birth of the Messiah. That fact becomes a powerful reality for us. The shepherds’ encounter with an angel on the Bethlehem hillside proclaims to all people of every place and generation that Christ comes for the sake of all humankind – young, old, rich, poor, black, white, flawed and broken – for my sake and for your sake.
Pope Benedict noted in a recent Christmas message, “The heart of the Christmas message is meant for all men and women. Jesus was born for everyone, and just as Mary, in Bethlehem, offered him to the shepherds, so on this day the Church presents him to all humanity, so that each person and every human situation may come to know the power of God’s saving grace, which alone can transform evil into good, which alone can change human hearts, making them oases of peace.”
And there is still one more lesson to be learned from Saint Luke’s Gospel this day. The shepherds of Bethlehem were told by the angel that they would be given a sign. “You will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And the gospel goes on to tell us that the shepherds went in haste to find the child and Mary, his mother. After their encounter with the incarnate Lord, they told others of the Savior’s birth and returned to their work with changed lives and hearts – glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard.
Something very significant happened to the shepherds in their visit to the manger. The shepherds understood that they were given the treasure of the incarnate God in their encounter with the Christ child. They also understood that their experience of the Christ brought with it a responsibility – the need for a response. Their experience demanded that they proclaim the incarnation – God taking on human shape and form – and that they do so in both word and in deeds of justice and mercy. Our experience of the Lord demands the same.
Because of the incarnation – Jesus being born as a human being – all of life has value – including every life in this Cathedral. My response to the Lord and yours – this day – demands that we treat all of life with respect and dignity because all of life is made in the image and likeness of God who took on human shape and form in a cave in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
Because of the incarnation, justice for all becomes a benchmark for how a follower of Christ should live.
Because of the incarnation, peace, earned by the brave men and women of our armed forces in far off lands – and peace sought in our families and neighborhoods – becomes a valued treasure.
Because of the incarnation, religious liberty – our first freedom as Americans –is a right that we must not only cherish but work to preserve in our land, not simply in order that we might freely pray at this Mass, but to insure that what we believe and how we choose to live based on those beliefs – our rights of conscience – are protected. Indeed, this basic right is integral to our ability to respond to the very life of Jesus and the gospel that he has given to us to proclaim – a gospel grounded in the works of mercy – health care, education, relief to the poor, immigration services and the defense of human life.
Because of the incarnation, forgiveness, both generously granted and humbly received, becomes the means for reconciliation and the realization of our deepest hope – to belong to another.
Because of the incarnation, love, rooted in the selfless example of the Christ who gave his life for us, becomes our lifeline to God himself.
My friends, the true miracle of the Christmas gospel – so familiar yet ever so new – continues to unfold in our hearts and continues to be offered to every soul open to God. The birth of the Christ child in a stable and the response of the shepherds capture essence of the miracle quite well.
All we need to do to encounter this saving grace of God is to be honest enough to acknowledge our brokenness and our need for a savior. All we need to do is to listen carefully to the life-giving wisdom of his word – to be humble enough to receive him in the Eucharist – and to generously love and serve his presence in one another – the very lives and hearts that God has given to us this day.
Therein, my friends, we see how the Christmas story – although familiar and ages old – becomes a precious gift – ever new and filled with the power of God to give life and peace to all.
Merry Christmas!
