Christmas proclamation: God has come to save
us
Homily of
Cardinal Justin Rigali
Christmas Vigil Mass
Cathedral Basilica
of Saints Peter and Paul
Christmas 2007
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,
For two thousand years the meaning of our Christmas celebration has been
spelled out for us so clearly in the words of the Gospel that we have
just heard. The angel announces to all of us: “Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for
all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born
for you who is Christ and Lord.”
This is indeed the Christmas proclamation of the Church. God has come
to save us in the person of His own Son Jesus Christ. The Son of God appears
among us as a newborn child. We have heard the words of the prophet Isaiah:
“A child is born to us, a son is given us.” Jesus Christ is
born in Bethlehem.
But this birth of Jesus Christ, which we see depicted in the manger, is
not only the birth of the Savior. It is also a wonderful exchange. This
birth represents a wonderful exchange between God and man. Through the
Virgin Mary, God takes on our humanity and God gives us a share in His
divinity.
Not only is this exchange wonderful, but everything about it is wonderful.
The exchange is wonderful in the Child. Who is this Child? Who is this
Child born in Bethlehem on Christmas night? This Child, whose name is
Jesus, is both the Son of God and the Son of the Virgin Mary. This Child
shares divinity with His Father. He is God like His Father. This Child
shares humanity with His Mother and with all of us. And this is why the
exchange is so wonderful, because, in Jesus, God takes on our humanity
and gives us a share in His own divine life. In accepting Jesus, we become
children of God, His brothers and sisters.
This exchange is also wonderful in the love that explains it. The reason
why the Child came into the world, the reason why Jesus is born at Bethlehem
is that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to be our Savior.
And so, this exchange is indeed wonderful in the love that is at the source
of this plan of God to send His Son into the world, so that He could take
our flesh, sanctify our humanity and then give us a share in His divine
life.
But there is more! This exchange between God and man is also wonderful
in what it brings to Christ. What it gives to the Son of God is wonderful.
God, from all eternity, is the God of love. But at Bethlehem God begins
to love in human flesh. And that is something new and wonderful: for God
to share our human flesh and, with our emotions and with our heart of
flesh, to be able to love us with His eternal love. O yes! This exchange
between God and man is indeed wonderful in the humanity that it gives
to Jesus Christ.
And then, too, this exchange is wonderful in the consequences that it
has for us. In Jesus Christ, the Child at Bethlehem, God’s solidarity
with us, God’s solidarity with all humanity, is complete and His
love is total.
But in the mystery of Christ’s birth, total also is the solidarity
that Christ requires of all His brothers and sisters with the rest of
humanity. Christ requires that He be loved in every human being by every
other human being, because humanity now belongs to God. Humanity now belongs
to Christ, and Christ will never allow Himself to be separated from those
who share humanity with Him.
And this, dear friends, is where our Christmas message takes us: to the
consequences of this wonderful exchange. Our Christmas message takes us
to humanity in need: to every brother and sister in need of Jesus Christ
and His love, His pardon, His healing, His compassion, His Gospel of eternal
life.
Our Christmas message takes us to every human being suffering from hunger
and disease; suffering in body, mind and soul; suffering from war and
hatred; suffering from natural causes and disasters, and those suffering
from their own sins and the sins of others.
The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us! The Word of God dwelt amongst
us in Jesus Christ. And to all those who accept Him, He gives the power
to become the children of God.
In our second reading Saint Paul alludes to all these consequences, proclaiming
the grace of God that has appeared in Jesus Christ. Through His humanity
Jesus Christ trains us and challenges us to live temperately and justly
and devoutly, and to be eager to do what is right, what is right toward
our God, what is right toward our brothers and sisters.
This, dear friends, is indeed our Christmas message. It expresses the
faith of a Church that loves and cares for all human beings, because in
Jesus Christ she adores an incarnate God who is the Word made Flesh and
in whose humanity all human life is sacred, and every human right is inviolable.
This Christmas message—rooted in adoration of the newborn Savior,
in adoration of the Child at Bethlehem—becomes a new commitment
and an invitation to us to uphold and defend, in His Name, the dignity
of human life from whatever wounds or weakens, dishonors or destroys it.
For us, Christmas becomes a new commitment and an invitation for us to
work to uplift the human condition of all those who share humanity in
common with the Son of God and who, in the Son of God, in Jesus Christ,
are destined for eternal life.
How important it is, dear friends, for each one of us—during the
whole year—to be a part of the living, praying, worshiping, and
serving Church of Jesus Christ. This is a challenge for all of us—the
challenge that comes to us at the birth of Jesus—the challenge of
the wonderful exchange between God and man, between God and all of us.
Therefore, each of us must realize that everyone is welcome, in our community
and in our Church. Everyone is welcome to come home to stay in the Church
of God. Everyone is needed. Everyone is needed throughout the year, and
everyone is called by God. Everyone is invited by this great love story
of God our Father to be part—to be an active part—of this
wonderful exchange between the Son of God and His Church. Christ came
to be close to all of us. He came to bring us into His Church, in which
we are truly a living, praying, worshiping, and serving people. Christ
came at Bethlehem to call us to accept Him freely, and, in accepting Him,
to accept His Church, to accept one another.
There is a place of honor for all of you, dear friends, in the community
of Christ’s Church, and Jesus needs you. He needs you here week
after week to pray with Him, to serve with Him, to love others in His
Name. A tremendous challenge! Yes, this wonderful exchange of divinity
and humanity remains a challenge for us tonight and throughout the year.
It is a challenge to all of us who have the immense privilege of being
brothers and sisters of that Child in Bethlehem; that Child who is our
Savior, our God; that Child who is the Son of the Eternal Father; that
Child who is the Son of the Virgin Mary; that Child who is the Savior
of the world.
The angel was right, dear friends. The message is meant for all of us.
Let us listen once again: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim
to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today
in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and
Lord.” Amen.