Christmas Homily - 2016

By

Rev Fr. A. Christopher, HGN

I would like to take the opportunity this Christmas season to reflect, however inadequately, on one of the most magnificent message, indeed one of the gems of the Catholic tradition; the tradition of sharing and exchanging gifts on Christmas day. However I would like to go little further and reflect to whom and with whom we should share and celebrate the Christmas meaningfully.

To celebrate the birth of Christ, we take four weeks to prepare. The four weeks of advent is usually marked with four advent candles. The four advent candles are traditionally named as Prophet's Candle, Bethlehem's Candle, Shepherd's Candle and Angel's Candle. If we look back the salvation history many have played vital role to bring forth the Messiah to the world. Among them the Prophets, Bethlehem, Shepherds and Angels too occupied very important places. They had their own role and duty in announcing and accommodating the birth of Jesus and sharing the joy and peace to the world. However all these four were one way or the other neglected people or place. The Prophets were neglected by people, Bethlehem was looked very low, Shepherds were always downtrodden people in the society and the Angels were normally forgotten by humans. But all these four either neglected or forgotten were included by Jesus in the history of his birth. The people and the society whom they neglected were the most chosen people by our Lord Jesus.

It is a bitter fact that today the world neglects such people. Now I would like to draw your attention towards the crib that we have made. Hope you all have seen the crib very closely. When we look at the crib it really brings us a kind of joy as if Jesus is indeed born in our own place. But whenever I look at a crib, it makes me a little sad, because one of my favourite person, who really deserves to get a place in the crib, is not found in that crib. Can anyone guess...? He is the owner of the stable and the manger. No one remembers him. Joseph and Mary knocked the doors of many rich and royal people to get a place for Jesus to be born. But no one offered a place. Probably Joseph and Mary’s outward poverty is the guardian of this mystery. If Joseph and Mary had looked as if they were rich, people would have made room for them in their houses or at least in the inn, because of Mary’s condition. They would have turned out other less important guests; they would have found a way to keep them. Since Joseph and Mary looked poor, they neglected them. But another poor person comes forward to offer his small cow-shed all that he had for Messiah to be born. No one knows who that person was..! Nothing about him is recorded even in the scripture. Why..? Probably because he was a very poor man and might be an outcast. That is why no one minded him and no one bothered to remember him. If it were to be a king or royal rich person offered a place in their house or palace, I am sure his name would have been known very popularly now and even his name would have found a place in the scripture.

Friends, I am not trying to find fault or blame someone now. But I would like all of us to reflect on this truth. This crib belongs to that poor person, where as we forgot him and denied a place in the crib. We just forgot and neglected him and did not mind giving him at least a corner place in his own crib. Once again I am not here to blame anybody, but trying to point out the attitude of the whole humanity. 2000 years before people had the attitude of neglecting the poor and needy and that attitude has not been changed very much even now.

We have no right to ignore or neglect the people whom Jesus chose during his birth. He chose only that poor man and his family who gave Jesus a place to be born; He chose those poor shepherds to share the first joy of his birth. The place to be born he chose was the poorest of the poor. We should and must show and share our mercy to such poor people.

Why not we make few more statues for poor owner of that stable and for his wife and children and keep them in our crib? When we look at those statues will surely think of such poor and neglected people living around us. Those statues will move us to include poor and forgotten people in our Christmas celebration.

The real happiness is in only giving. Let's try to do something practically on this Christmas day. After this vigil Mass (Day Mass) before shaking hands with our friends and known people, let's go and shake hands with unknown and especially poor people and wish them happy Christmas. During your special Christmas lunch or dinner, give a seat in your dining table to a poor man. Before sharing your colourful Christmas gifts with your family and friends, share such gifts with outcasts, downtrodden, oppressed, poor and needy. After the devastating 'Vardah' typhoon thousands of people in Southern part of India (Chennai in State of Tamil Nadu) lost everything, even their hope to restart their life. This is the right time to show our compassion towards them if we really want to celebrate the Christmas meaningfully.

Christmas is a season of giving and the measure of being a Christian is to show our love and care to others. True love consists in what we give and do for another. Buying a gift is often much easier, but sometimes just being present there and being supportive can bring so much joy and happiness to others. In some case, presence and emotional support are better than monetary and material gifts. So let us present ourselves along with the presence of God to the people who are really in need of. In our given situation today we could include just one poor person and give him a meal and cloth him. That will bring the real joy, peace and hope that Jesus brought to us today. This is how we are giving a place for the poor owner of that stable in our crib.

Wish you all a very happy, blessed and meaningful Christmas.

God bless you all.

Fr. A. Christopher, HGN

Cell: 9840995431

The Baptism of Our Lord

Is 40:1-5, 9-11;                          Titus 2:11-14, 3:4-7;                  Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I would like to begin by sharing with you some of what a lady called Doris wrote about her life.

“My father abandoned his wife and four children when I was young. I never saw him and never heard from him and until I was 18 I believed he was dead. When Aunt Emma, my father’s sister, told me he was alive, I was astonished. I gave her my graduation picture to give to him, and hoped he would contact me. He never did. Later, when I committed my life to Jesus, I developed a relationship with Him and knew His love. Yet I was afraid of God the Father. Knowing Him as a tender and loving Father seemed impossible. One day I learned that my father had died. My deepest prayer to meet him would not be fulfilled. I felt an enormous hurt, and visited Aunt Emma. She told me a little about his life and death, and said he decided not to see me because he was too ashamed of his behaviour as a young father. He must have known, through her, that for 17 years I had asked about him. I stood near his grave engulfed in anguish. My search was over. This was as close as I would ever get to my father. I cried out to God, ‘It’s too late, too late! I have no father!’ At that point I heard a voice say, ‘I am your Father.’ I turned around but no one was there. Again I heard the words, this time softer. ‘I am your Father.’ It was hard to believe at first, but the God I had feared spoke to me. I felt His love surround me. Because God revealed Himself to me as Father, I no longer feel the hurt of an abandoned child, nor the pain from my fruitless search. I was healed so that only the memory and none of the pain remains. That afternoon in the lonely cemetery changed my life. Where God was once only a remote figure of the Trinity, He is now the Father I talk with, walk with, and praise each day. I realize this wonderful Father loves all His children so much that He impatiently awaits the day that He can draw us close to Himself forever.”

(Taken from Healing Through the Mass pages 24-25 by Robert DeGrandis, published and copyright 1992 by Resurrection Press and used by permission of the publishers.)

Just as our heavenly Father spoke to Doris, our Father also spoke on the day Jesus was baptized, “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.” Because we are baptized we are beloved sons and daughters of God. Just as the Father said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him” when Jesus was baptized, the Father said over us when we were baptized, “This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter.” On the day we were baptized we were changed forever. Imagine, you became a son or daughter of God on the day you were baptized, enjoying a new relationship with our Father. It was because of her baptism that Doris benefited from this beautiful relationship with her heavenly Father. We don’t think enough about our baptism, this most important event in our lives. If we reflected more on who we are since baptism how different we would be, how differently we would live.

The Sacrament of Baptism emphasizes this new relationship with our Father. Though the sacrament of Baptism removes our Original sin, it emphasizes more becoming a child of God and a member of the Church. That is why after baptism at the font, four signs in the sacrament symbolize for us this new relationship with God. If you listen to the prayers accompanying these four symbols they tell us about our new relationship with God.

Ø  Firstly the child is anointed with the oil of chrism. This is the holy oil used by the bishop to anoint us on the forehead during Confirmation and to anoint the hands of a priest during his Ordination. Part of the prayer for the anointing during baptism is, “As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.” 

Ø  Secondly the white garment is put on the child. Part of the prayer accompanying putting on the white garment is, “…you have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity”.

Ø  Thirdly a lighted candle is given to the parents, a symbol of receiving the light of Christ. Part of the prayer accompanying this is, “This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ.” 

Ø  Fourthly the ears and mouth of the child are blessed because they will hear the Word of God and the child will profess his/her faith.

Being baptized as children would make no sense and have no meaning if as we grew up we didn’t put our baptism into effect, if we didn’t live like people who have been baptized into the Catholic Church. I would like to remind here to the parents and the god parents the promise that you gave during the baptism of your children. The priest asks the parents in the following way: You have asked to have your children baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him/her in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him/her up to keep God and our neighbour. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking? And the parents and the god parents say: “Yes, we do”. Now is the time for you my dear parents and god parents to reflect and see whether you truly fulfilled or fulfilling your duty towards your children as you have promised to God during their baptism. Once again I would like to remind you that it is your duty to bring your children up in the practice of the Catholic faith.

Dear friends, Our baptism when we were children would have been senseless  if we did not decide for ourselves as we grew up that the decision made for us by our parents was in fact what we ourselves also wanted for ourselves. There is one occasion above all others during the year when we proclaim that what our parents did for us was what we also wanted, that is during the Easter Vigil when we renew our baptismal vows. Every sacrament has a lasting effect, our baptism was not just a magic formula recited over us by the priest to wash off original sin and give us a chance of getting to heaven. Baptism is like Ordination and marriage, it is something to be lived every day. When we were baptized it is as if the Father said over us as he said over Jesus, “This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter.” Doris was privileged to experience this in a dramatic way. The rest of us live every day knowing God is our Father and we are his sons and daughters since we were baptized.

AMEN.          

Fr. A. Christopher, HGN