Great Love For Great Sinners

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The book of Genesis 3:6 says: "The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruits would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. She took some of the fruits and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it." This is a caution to those who are easily swept and carried away by the beauty of material things. Now, as soon as they ate the fruit, they realized they were naked. That's what sin does to us; it strips us naked, naked of our innocence. It strips the garment of righteousness we received when we were baptized. It renders us defenseless and vulnerable to the attacks of the Devil. Now in the evening of that day, God came to fellowship with Adam and Eve. When they heard God walking in the garden, they hid themselves out of fear and shame. But God who never avoids any of us even when we run away from him called them out: "Where are you?" Adam responded: "I heard you in the garden; I was afraid and hid from you because I was naked."

So, when God asked Adam and Eve who told them they were naked, they started making excuses. Just like us who hardly admit our failures, they started shifting blames. Adam passed the buck: "The woman you put here with me gave me the fruits and I ate it." Then God turned to Eve and asked, "Eve, why did you do this?" Again, Eve refused to own up her sin, instead blamed the snake: "The snake tricked me into eating it." Well, the snake cannot talk; it couldn't exonerate itself or blamed someone else. So, it was cursed by God. 

In the dialogue between God and our First Parents, none of them accepted it was their fault. None said: "Lord, it is my fault, I messed up; I have sinned, please forgive me." It was at this point, so to say, that Jesus entered the stage. I want to believe that Jesus may have said to the Father: "Father, allow me to go and crush the head of the serpent. Allow me to go and show them how much we love them. Allow me to go and dwell among them. Allow me to go and take their sins upon me. I want to reveal you to them. I want to reveal us to them. They are yet to experience us in a profound way. We are still far away from them. I want to migrate into their neighborhood and establish our Kingdom there. If I cannot go down there, we cannot possibly blame them for listening to the Evil One. We need to make our home with them."

With this, Jesus came to earth. He took the name Immanuel which means, "God is with us." It's no longer a God who calls from heaven. It's no longer a God who visits occasionally in the cool of the evening. It's no longer a God who is far away and relates with us from a distance. It's God who moves into our neighborhood. He is the New Sheriff in town, but he does not come to arrest us, rather to arrest the Evil One. He does not hide in the corner of the highway of our lives, he comes to live and dwell among us. He rides with us as we drive to work, to the church, to the grocery store, to our homes, and everywhere. He does not come to accuse and charge us to court, rather to right the wrong in our lives and in the world. Through Jesus God comes to save us. Isaiah 35: 4 says: "Say to those who are discouraged, ‘be strong and don't be afraid! Your God is coming, he is coming with vengeance, with divine retribution, he is coming to save you."

Through Jesus, God teaches the most beautiful message: "God is love." He teaches the most excellent, the most hopeful and the most consoling message: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not die but will have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

Dearest beloved, today is Christmas! Today we celebrate John 3:16. 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. 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.