The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Mass during the Day

 Lectionary: 16

In the beginning was the Word,
        and the Word was with God,
        and the Word was God.
    He was in the beginning with God. 
    All things came to be through him,
        and without him nothing came to be.

The story is told of the great French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, that he was shopping in a department store, apparently looking at clothing, when he realized there was someone standing close to him. He felt very uncomfortable, particularly because the stranger did not move away. Finally he turned to accost the shopper or sales clerk with a loud “Excuse me,” when he realized it was a mannequin. It was not a person, friend, enemy, or stranger, but a piece of furniture, wearing clothes. 

The philosopher was reminded that his sense of freedom is threatened by other people. They – that is, anyone – is an enemy of his ability to think and feel his own thoughts and feelings without their agreement, disagreement, or criticism. They might even think about him without his being able to know their thoughts, or control them – or worse, they might not think of him at all.  Sartre is remembered for his atheism, and his dictum, “Hell is other people.” 

On Christmas Day we celebrate the birth of another person among us, a man who crowds our world in the most uncomfortable way, and yet his presence is wonderful. For Jesus was with God in the beginning, and remains with God, and is in God, and is God; and wants with all his heart and soul to be with us. 

Born among us and one of our own children, Jesus sees with the eye of God and looks upon his fellow human beings with delight, pity, and compassion. He is the child who adores his father and mother, and loves to be around his uncles, aunts, and cousins. He is the teen who admires his grandparents and asks them about their memories of years gone past. He is the apprentice, eager to learn a trade from the masters and contribute to the well being of others. His feet are on the ground but his head is not in the clouds. He wants nothing more than to be with us, and to give his energies, time, and resources for us. 

His reactions are human and divine. He knows as we all know that “it wasn’t supposed to be this way.” We were created from the mud of this earth to enjoy this entire planet as a worldwide Garden of Eden. But not only have our sins polluted the planet, wreaked havoc on our ecological systems, and caused widespread extinction of species, it has caused endless distress, disease, and oppression among us. We suffer with every form of disability and sickness. 

And so the Son of Mary and Son of God began to heal everyone who came to him. They flocked to him by the hundreds, and then by the thousands. He loved them and he loved to be among them; and he loved to laugh with their renewed joy in being well. 

This Man does not hesitate to stand beside us in our sickness, guilt, and shame; in our poverty or wealth, in good times and in bad. He neither exploits our good fortune nor flees from our misfortunes. 

But we have heard that he is God, and he knows we expect much of God, and that most of our expectations are unrealistic, impossible, and downright nonsense. He cannot do for us whatever we ask, as the Apostles Simon and John once accosted him. (Mark 10:35)  

He also knows that we can become violent toward people who disappoint us, and yet he stays because his love can save us from ourselves and from our violence. If we are uncomfortable when he stands too close, he remains close anyway, and waits for us to turn around and welcome him.

Christmas is the day that we welcome strangers, and the strangest of all is this Lord God who is born among us. What makes him utterly strange and frankly weird is that he is a human being and enjoys being human, and wants to be human, and insists upon it; because that is the only way he can have communion and enjoy solidarity with us. Because we cannot be gods the Son of God chooses to be a brother to each one of us. 

But many people despise their own human weaknesses, vulnerability, illness, and certain death. We hate that we might be wrong, that we often don’t know what we’re talking about. We hate that we must depend on other people, and they’re sometimes unreliable, and they sometimes let us down; and we hate to admit that we also let others down. 

This man is even stranger for persistently choosing to be human when others want him to be God, as when Satan tempted him in the wilderness, as when a mob demanded that he judge a woman caught in adultery, as when his accusers said he heals by the power of Beelzebub, as when they mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.” 

There are many times when we wish he would stop being so human and start acting more like God. Don’t you see everything that's wrong with the world? Why don’t you do something? There are wars, murders, genocide – and you do nothing about it except hang on a cross. How is that supposed to help? 

He knows but cannot explain. There is nothing in human language or thought that would make sense of God’s wisdom or goodness; we can only see, trust, and believe as he saw, trusted, and believed. 

Obedient to his human nature and his heavenly Father, he chose to be as weak and helpless as any man or woman who is trapped, imprisoned, handcuffed, bound, or nailed to a cross. Even as he felt the unforgiving wood of the cross, he preferred to die like any man rather than to be God. 

We come to Bethlehem to find our God in the form of a helpless human baby. We come to Mass to find the God-Man who stays with us in the form of bread and wine. We come to the cross to find a man dying for the love of God and for our salvation. 

And we are grateful that he is here, and has called us to be here where he is. We want to be with him tonight, and he wants to be with us.