Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord
(Sunday 25th December 2016)
Today we come to know the greatest of all truths; the Love of God born into our world – (John 1:1-18)
When I was a working in a parish, I would usually prepare a homily for Christmas Midnight Mass. But I was in a dilemma for Masses being celebrated later on Christmas Day as the readings are different. The liturgy instructs us to read the prologue to John’s Gospel which ends, “And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. It is profound theology, the heart of the incarnation. But I suspect that parishoners wanted to hear the story of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. So my compromise was to begin the Mass with a blessing of our Church nativity and to read the familiar story from Luke’s Gospel then at that point. But I loved preaching on the prologue, John Chapter 1 Verses 1-18. This is the good news that attracts a Franciscan heart.
St. Francis understood that the birth of Jesus reveals a staggering truth that God has entered our world, embraced our humanity and is now irrevocably committed to dwell among us. For Franciscans, this truth revolutionises how we look at ourselves in the world. The love of God is now visible in a human person. We believe that from all eternity, the trinity, which is a community of love, wanted to give that love away in love. The incarnation, the mystery that we celebrate in the manger scene, was God’s plan from all eternity. The silent night of a birth in a manger in the City of David is where all of creation converges. It is the intersection of prophesy and promise. St. Francis knew this truth when he brought the nativity scene to life in Greccio, Italy in the 13thCentury. He intended for that display to awaken in the hearts of people what they had forgotten – the love of God born into our world. As people gazed at the manger, St. Francis wanted them to grasp something most profound about God and so to learn something profound about themselves.
One of my Franciscan brothers points out that in the beloved Christmas hymn ‘O Holy night’, we sing that when Christ appeared, the soul felt its worth. There is no way that we can know our true worth by ourselves. Another must reveal it. This other is God. That is what is revealed in the nativity scene, what love is all about as St. Luke describes it and in the profound message of John’s gospel “The word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. Thus we come to know that greatest of all truths – the love of God born into our world.
Merry Christmas!