Christmas Homily 2020

 

Homily for Christmas 2020

He Is With Us

 

                As the world was shutting down this past April due to Coronavirus, prisons and hospitals and nursing homes became fortresses with no one allowed in or out. In Victoria, Canada, prisoners were fearful of losing their chaplain, a priest of the local diocese. He was one of the few who gave them hope, a link to the outside world. Would he be “locked out” from the prison?

            Hearing of their fears and acutely feeling their spiritual desolation, the priest did a surprising thing – he asked his bishop for permission to be jailed along with the prisoners so he could serve them from inside the prison. He was willing to go inside 24/7 to minister to the prisoners, no matter how many months he would have to live there.

            I’m not sure I’d have the courage to do such a thing. This is love in its purest form – to be willing to descend to the depths of misery to accompany people with hope.

            And this is precisely the kind of love that caused God to leave His throne of majesty, where He was worshipped ceaselessly by angels – to enter the misery of human existence, to become one of us. He imprisoned Himself in a body to free His people from their sins; He embraced our poverty to make us rich in grace. He became a miserable servant to raise His miserable servants to the dignity of princes.

            In every crisis, people often ask the question, “Where is God?” This past year, with coronavirus and loneliness and unemployment and political unrest, many have been asking that same question – “Where is God in the midst of all this madness and sickness and suffering?”

            Where is God? He is with us. This is what “Emmanuel” means: God with us. He is shoulder-to-shoulder with us, in the midst of our suffering and confusion and pain. Because God took on flesh, we can literally never say to God, “You don’t know what I’m going through!” Because He does. Are you mourning the loss of a loved one? Jesus, true God and true man, wept at the grave of His friend Lazarus. Are you fearful about the future? Jesus was so agonized about His impending death that He sweat blood in the garden. Are you suffering financial hardship? Jesus didn’t even have a place to lay His head – He was born in a stabled and buried in a borrowed grave. Are you in physical pain? Jesus endured the worst sufferings known to mankind on the Cross. Are you lonely? Jesus was abandoned by all of His friends at the end of His life. Are you rejoicing? Jesus too rejoiced – He attended wedding feasts and enjoyed time with His friends and family.

            We can never say, “God, You don’t know what it’s like!” Because He can say, “Yes, I do. I became one of you so that your humanity would be taken up into My Divinity.”

            We may not like that answer, though, because we expect God to be a genie who makes all of our problems disappear. God, can’t you make coronavirus go away…can’t You help me get a job…can’t You make me not anxious or lonely?

            And God responds, “I can do all that, but I have more in store for you than fixing your problems. I want you to invite Me into them, into the darkness of your life, so that I can draw you closer to Me.”

            Instead of praying, “God, take my problems away,” we should be praying, “God, be with me in my life: my good times and my rough times…help me to see where You are moving, how You are blessing me through the struggles, how You are helping me grow through them.”

            You see, God became man so that we could have a relationship with Him. It is hard to have a relationship with someone you never see. Perhaps you can have a pen-pal, but that isn’t quite the same as sitting down across the table from someone. God wanted a deep friendship with us, so He became a man to initiate that friendship.

            Do you, then, share your struggles and your joys with Him? Do you invite Him into your everyday life? He wants to be closer to you than any friend. If you don’t already, begin today to have a living personal relationship with Him. It’s simple – just invite Him into your life. Pray, “Lord Jesus, I love You, and I ask You to be the center of my life.” Speak to Him frequently throughout the day, and let Him speak to you in silence and through the Bible.

            God became man solely out of a free gift of love, because the lover wants to be with the beloved. God wants to be with His people – and He wants us to invite Him into our lives, our joys and sorrows, every single day. That way, He is not merely a God who dwells in Heaven, but one who is “with us” – who desired to dwell among us in Bethlehem, and still desires such a friendship through grace.