Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
12/25/05 Christmas Day
’Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this Child has been conceived in her. She will bear a Son and you are to name Him Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Last Wednesday I went to dinner with my Dad’s only sibling – my Aunt Jo. She lives nearby in Quinlan and was such a help to me in caring for my Dad who died just four days before Christmas just three years ago. May he rest in peace!
We had made our plans but I was sure to arrive early. I wanted to meet and visit with Aunt Jo’s new houseguest – a baby lamb. About 7 weeks ago a lady who raises sheep called Aunt Jo and told her of a lamb in distress. The mother sheep – the ewe – had given birth to triplets instead of twins. A ewe can accommodate the feeding of 2 lambs and the 3 or runt will starve to death. The lady asked my Aunt if she wanted to take on this lamb in need.
Aunt Jo raised 3 sons and has a lot of experience of living on a farm. She accepted the challenge and her household now includes a little Yorkie and a little lamb. Aunt Jo said that the lamb was only one pound in weight when it was delivered to her care. When she told me this I said: “That’s great! That’s just sandwich size – a half a pound for you and a half a pound for me.” Just kidding! Don’t worry! [Laughter] So, Aunt Joe has been feeding this lamb and I have been hearing stories about it. The lamb's name is Little Bit but I don't think she is going to be able to call it Little Bit much longer. The lamb really lets her know when he is hungry and so she feeds him several times a day with a bottle.
I wanted to go and see this lamb for the first time. It isn’t very tall and it is all legs. He follows Aunt Joe everywhere she goes when she is outside. He doesn’t walk in the normal fashion; all four legs are employed as springs and he springs from one place to the other like a deer, which worries the Yorkie. The lamb might land on him. He isn’t real happy about having Little Bit around the place.
This lamb is delicate, cuddly, and innocent, it can in no way be described as strong although it is growing in strength. What if I told you that one day this lamb would grow up to be the strongest and mightiest animal in the entire county? You would make fun of that statement and say it will never happen, but the image of the lamb is what St. John the Baptist, who is mentioned in the Gospel today, used. He identified Jesus as the Lamb of God. The lamb is such a symbol, especially for the people of Israel who were always tending flocks like the shepherds in the accounts in the Gospels; they were tending their flocks so they knew exactly how powerless sheep and lambs were and that is why a shepherd would always have to be watching them. They have no natural defenses. By the time a ram is grown it can defend itself…but the rest of them, good luck!
The image of having a lamb grow to be the strongest and mightiest animal in the entire county is not going to happen, but it is the image that our faith presents us with today on this the Memorial of the Birth of Christ. Centuries before the Birth of Christ, Isaiah spoke in prophecy of this great day. That he would be of the line of David is a promise God made to David and that he would raise up an heir from David’s line and God Himself would build a house for Him. He wasn’t talking about a house of wood or stone but a house meaning family or clan so to speak.
The Prophet Isaiah speaks in very specific terms about this Messiah and His humility; that He would come as the suffering servant of God. That doesn’t sound very strong. Isaiah says that the Messiah will be so respectful and humble that a bruised reed He would not break or a smoldering wick He would not quench. When a candle is extinguished the wick still smolders and could be easily put out, but the Messiah would be so incredibly humble and respectful that He wouldn’t break a bruised reed, which is so easily done, or to quench the wick.
Today is the Feast of the Birth of Christ, the Virgin Birth of Christ, which is the constant teaching of the Church for 2000 years. The Church says so very specifically. Speaking about this mystery…the Blessed Virgin Mary was a virgin before the birth of Christ, during the birth of Christ, and after the birth of Christ.
“Hey wait a minute, how did that happen?”
It is a mystery of our faith. People shrug their shoulders all the time about mysteries and they discount the Church because She has mysteries. How man people here can tell me how electricity works or what makes your computer run? Yea I know, we have probably got a couple of Engineers here who could tell me but forget you, the rest of us just know that we push this little button here and that is what makes the computer go. The mystery of the Virgin Birth is the culmination of promises made by God since Adam and Eve to save us from our sins. God was so respectful in His comings and so humble in His origins that He would not disturb the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, right in keeping with this prophecy of Isaiah centuries before Christ. A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not quench, coming into this world as docile as a lamb, which is very fitting that the place of the birth of Christ would be in a stable in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem is the City of David. There was no lodging for the Holy Family; how sad that they had no room for the creator of the world and so He was born under the most humble of conditions. Most of us were born in very respectable circumstances like in a hospital. There is also nothing lacking in respect being born at home but most of us were born under a roof where there was central air and heat and plumbing etc. Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for Him and we ruffle a bit asking how could they not make room for Him and give Him a decent place in which to be born.
An angel made the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds in the darkness of the countryside. If you ever want to see dark just go out into the country where there is no moon or streetlights, you will really see the darkness especially if it is cloudy. You can’t see your hand in front of your face. The angel appeared to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of Christ the same way the star guided those Wise Men to the location. The shepherds went to adore this newborn King but there was nothing about this child that would have acknowledged He was a King. This statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague depicts Jesus as a King from His birth; He didn’t wait to be crowned when he was eighteen or twenty-one, He was King from all eternity, which we read in St. John’s Gospel today.
The shepherds went and worshipped the new born King. Animals such as oxen, cattle, sheep and maybe donkeys were also there with the shepherds in the midst of the Lamb of God. If someone were to say that this child would be the one to tell us everything about God and man, no one would believe you. If you were one of the shepherds and you were with your family and happened to mention what happened that day and what it really meant, they would probably have you locked up.
The fact is, Christ is the Son of God and He has come to reveal to us everything about God; He is the fullness of the revelation of God. After Christ there is no more revelation because as the reading say, he is the fullness of revelation and has come to tell us the truth about go and the truth about man. He is going to reveal man to man and tell us the truth about what it means to be a man in this world. This is sad and it sounds so unoriginal and so traditional and yet today there are people who are living in this Judeo Christian country with Christian backgrounds who fail to realize this most basic of teachings, that God has sent his Son into the world to be a light to the world. When He found man in the ditch, like the Good Samaritan found the man all beaten on the side of the road, He put us back on the right path and lights that path all the way to Heaven. All we have to do is to follow His light. Yet His teachings are as gently and as clear and light. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and this truth is what lights our path. In the Presentation in the Temple Simeon says,
The light to reveal you to the nations..
The light of Christ is to shine on every aspect of human activity but people describe the teachings of Christ today in very unusual ways. For example someone might ask me,
“What does the Church suggest in this area or matter?”
That sound a bit like someone ordering for the first time in one of those “shee shee” restaurants, you know?
“I have never been here, what would you suggest?”
“Well, I think we can start with this and move on to that. Oh, this is the specialty of the house. What would you suggest?”
When people ask me the question about what the Church “suggests”, I have to stop and give a reality check and ask,
“Do you mean what does Jesus teach through His church?”
Ok, now we are on terra firma, now we are on solid ground! But this business about what the Church, uh…as thought we are looking for some French term to describe what Jesus teaches through His church. The teachings of Christ through His Church are easily found but it is sad to say that they are not frequently studied. There is not much time to study the teachings of Christ during the commercials; we are busy. There are CDs for your computer that contains the Universal Catechism, the teachings of the Fathers of the Church and the writings of the saints down through the ages. All of this is there, Christ speaking to us to light our way to Heaven but He is just as respectful of our free will as He is the virginity of his mother. He won’t come and bust down the door and force us to live according to His light. If we are wise we are drawn to the light. Everyone thinks it is so profound when they hear someone who has had some experience say,
“Yes, I kept hearing the words, WALK TOWARD THE LIGHT!”
The Gospel says it again and again but it is if they are hearing it for the very first time. The teachings of the Church are there to light our way.
If I can use an example…Imagine if you will, that reincarnation is possible. Time out! Flag on the field! Reincarnation is NOT possible according to the teachings of Christ and is not a concept in which we believe. Reincarnation is not an allowed belief in the Catholic Church! Did I mention that reincarnation….no? Ok. But, just suppose that you could be reincarnated, which you cannot be reincarnated.
Father is trying to make very clear that the Catholic Church does not accept at all, the idea of reincarnation.
Suppose that you came back in another life as a dog. You begin to understand that dogs are beautiful etc. etc. but they also have some practices we find, well…repulsive! Thank you Lord that I am not a dog, Amen! Dogs are lower animals so we don’t hold this against them. But what if you came back as a dog? Then you begin to see how much Christ humbled Himself.
From all eternity He is God and yet he humbles Himself so that He can become a man and save us from our sins. The great new of the birth of Christ is that if we haven’t gotten it up to now, that is ok. His patience is so great and He wants to show us the way to Heaven and get us out of the ditch of sin and death. He wants to put us on the right path and light it all the way to Heaven but we have to follow that light and that light leads to the cross and through the cross, to Heaven. It is the path that He and His mother walked and if we wish to arrive at the same place, it is the path that we will walk as well. This Christmas we should pray for a strengthening of our faith in the teaching of Christ so respectful.
Centuries ago, Pope Leo wrote this in a sermon on Christmas. He ends the sermon speaking of the dignity of Christians.
You see, as Christians, as followers of Christ we want that light to shine on every part of our life; every part except that part. We adults here know what I am talking about when I say, “that part”.Christians, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bare in mind Who is your Head and of Whose Body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s Kingdom.
“O Lord, come into my life; shine Your light on every part of my life except that part. Amen”
What a beautiful prayer; go to the head of the class. And yet, this is prayer that many would “suggest’ that this is how Christ is showing us the way; shining the light of truth on every aspect of life but we want it on every aspect except this area, or THAT area.
Christ has come as the Truth to tell us the truth about how to be a human being, a man in this world. He tells us the truth about God and that is why things like reincarnation are dispelled; by turning on a light the darkness is dispelled. Christ didn’t come to lie to us. If He’d come to lie to us then He would have appeared in Washington! [Laughter] He came to tell us the truth about how to live in this world and how to follow His light all the way to Heaven.
Pope St. Leo the Great ends his sermon saying,
Bringing up the Blood of Christ…that is why He was born. He was born so that He would grow into the Lamb of God, Who would allow Himself in all strength to be nailed to the cross to save us from our sins. This is the lamb that grew into the Messiah, who is Lord of Heaven and earth and of everything there is from all eternity. As that beautiful hymn says, He is king of kings and Lord of lords. Today we recall that the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom. Through the Sacrament of Baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil. For your liberty was bought by the Blood of Christ.
’Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this Child has been conceived in her. She will bear a Son and you are to name Him Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen