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sxmasday04
The Light Eternal
Breaking
Text:
Luke 2:1-20
Date: Christmas Day
12/25/04 mylene farmer fack
On
this most joyous day of days, this grand and high feast of The Nativity
of Our Lord, the Faithful are called “joyful and triumphant” as
we gather to adore him, Christ the Lord, born this happy morning,
Word of the Father now in flesh appearing, the Light Eternal Breaking
through. Through him the Lord has made his salvation known and revealed
his righteousness to the nations. The angels can hardly contain
themselves with their singing, the shepherds, too, as they told
what they had heard about this child. And Mary treasured up all
these things and pondered them in her heart. For the joy and triumph
and song is all about how the ancient promises of God have finally
come together according to God's eternal plan of salvation.
Oh
there's more to it than this, all right. That's why it take a whole
year for the Church to tell the whole story—how this little, holy
Child grew in wisdom and in stature before God and men, how it came
to pass that he picked up on the preaching of John the Baptist and
proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, how he not only
preached but also taught and healed, then how he died and rose again
from the dead, and then what this all means: that those who sat
in darkness have seen a great light, have heard and followed him
in a great procession through the ages, the Holy Church throughout
the world. In fact, without the rest of the story we cannot adequately
explain the joy of this day.
When
you think about it, for all the joy, maybe this day raises more
questions than it answers. Contrast the unbridled joy of the angels
and the shepherds and of countless millions gathered in churches
all over the world today with the quiet treasuring and pondering
of Mary in the silent contemplation of her heart. It takes both.
There
is nothing like the joy and wonder a new born brings to a family.
There's just something in the human spirit that sees hope and purpose
and a renewal of the value of life when a new little one arrives
on the scene. And that is as it should be. As the Christmas carol
says it, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
Even without the rest of the story, just the fact that this Holy
Child has appeared on the scene is Good News. For it says that God
has not written us off, has not forgotten us, is not just in the
business of condemning us, for this news is, as the angel said,
“of a great joy that will be for all the people.”
Here,
in this Holy Child of Bethlehem, human nature itself has been restored.
For all our doubts about the relative worth or value of our lives,
this Birth echoes God's original and everlasting declaration, the
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” [Gen. 1:31].
In Christ the Light Eternal breaks through to restore that original
goodness in us.
This
is not to ignore, of course, our very real troubles, doubts, reverses,
misgivings, uncertainties--sins. It is not to ignore them but to
see the light of Christ breaking through them, releasing us from
those chains that enslave us and restoring life and peace through
the forgiveness of our sins. You see, the angels never asked the
shepherds if they were worthy or even ready for what had happened.
They simply announced it and began to sing praise. God never asked
if we desired a Savior or wanted to be saved. (He knew what our
unenlightened answer would be.) But God wants all to be saved and
to come back to a knowledge of the truth. As Saint Paul said it,
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us” [Romans 5:8 (ESV)]. Today we invite the whole
world to get caught up in our rejoicing, for the birth of the Savior
is, in itself, good news for all people.
For
many the joy of Christmas is located in family gatherings, especially
the return of sons and daughters who are away at college or pursuing
their own lives and vocations far from home. And when it is the
Gospel of Christmas that draws us back together, it is a reminder
of the God who has reconciled us to himself and to one another through
his strong love. Yet for others the family stuff of Christmas can
be painful. Some have long since lost any sense of a silent night
much less a holy one. Still, most people will acknowledge that Christmas
is about families—good ones, not so good ones, and downright bad
ones.
Everyone
is looking for a family. Not necessarily a family in the traditional
sense of a mom and dad, two kids and a BMW in the garage, but in
the sense of a household, a place to come home to. At Christmas
the Church gets another chance to be just such a household, the
household of God. We are given the opportunity to be family, not
on our terms, but on God's: the place where no one is ultimately
a stranger, where no one is ever really alone, where having been
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