For God so loved the world: Jesus is born

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily on the Second Sunday of Advent, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church

Louisiana, USA

December 25, 2011

Dearest beloved, today is Christmas! Today we celebrate John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” Today we celebrate the joy of the world. Today we celebrate the overtaking of darkness by the Light. Today we celebrate the greatest demonstration of love and the greatest miracle ever to occur in human history. The Creator becomes a creature. Divinity assumes humanity. The Master becomes a servant. 

Today, we celebrate the great love of God for us. God has come to save us. Isaiah 35:4 says, “Say to those who are fearful hearted, ‘be strong and do not be afraid, your God has come to destroy your enemies. He has come to save you.’” Jesus has moved into our neighborhood, not as a sherif to punish us when we err, but as our Savior. He has come to redeem us. He has come to reconcile us with God and to reconcile us with one another. 

Dearest beloved, the message of Christmas is the triumph of life, goodness and love over death, evil, and hate. In a world where some have embraced hatred, violence and terrorism as a way of settling scores, where genocide has been committed by some political leaders, where the income gap between the rich and the poor is like the gap between the East and West, where the cries of the poor and suffering do not always touch hearts any longer, the birth of Jesus Christ reveals how God so loves each of us that he sent his only Son to address all the injustices in the world. We are still living in a time of global financial crisis, high unemployment, social immobility, deep suffering and pain across the world. More and more people now think that social life is so broken that the best we can hope for is survival, just for the time being. But Christmas brings us a much deeper hope. The stable at Bethlehem unveils and reassures us that despite all the fearful things we see and hear, that despite all the tears and bleeding happening across the globe, there is still One who has immeasurable compassion for us especially for all who are jobless, for all who suffer, for all who are sick and shut-in, and for all who are abandoned. The angels’ song of “Peace on earth” brings hope in the face of difficulty. The worst thing to do is to loose hope. Christmas tells us “We cannot walk alone.” Christmas tells us that the best is yet to come. Christmas tells us that our best days are not in the past but ahead of us. 

The Christmas message is hope. The Light has overtaken the darkness. God has become a human person to share our human and earthly pattern. Christmas offers a new hope, a hope that assures us that we are not walking alone; we are not standing alone; we don’t have a God who is so far away. We have a God who lives with us and in us. He is Immanuel- God is with us! God who is with us in all life journeys. In joy and sorrow, he is with us. In sickness and good health, he is with us. In gloom, doom and boom, he is with us. In the time of empty and abundance. he is with us. In tears and laughter, he is with us. At birth and at death, God is with us. From the cradle to the grave, God is with us. At loss or in pain, he is still with us. In riches or in poverty, God is with us. He never leaves us. 

Sisters and brothers, Jesus Christ is born! As we celebrate his birth today, let’s also remember to let him be born again, this time, not in the manger, but in our hearts. 

Merry Christmas to you!