Christmas Eve Mass Homily
The Misery Of The Stable And The Glory Of God
Homily by Fr. Kerkmann, SJ
2016 Christmas Eve at 10:30 pm Mass
St. Ignatius Church, Tokyo
Some years ago, I was working at a school in Central Japan. Before Christmas the students always built a replica of the stable of Bethlehem and the Nativity scene. They also made a star out of paper with a light bulb in it. But they had a problem; where to hang the star? They found a simple solution. They just hung it within the stable under the roof to serve as a lantern. This is, of course, nonsense, I thought. The star should be in the sky above the roof, not under the roof.
Come to think of it, the students discovered –without realizing it – the true meaning of Christmas. The Son of God was born into this world. The star can be seen as a symbol of heaven, the stable is our world. It is here in the stable of Bethlehem that heaven and earth meet. The star is under the roof, right in that stable!
We have to take a closer look at the stable that is our world, in all its misery. It’s the world in which wars are being fought. Syria, Iraq, Africa nations, the Ukraine and other places come to mind. It is the world with millions of displaced people, millions of refugees, with thousands of them dying along the way. It is the world of terror; acts of terror spreading all over the world. It is the world of hunger and misery. Those who suffer the most are the children. The child in the manger is not something romantic. It is the brutal reality of our world, the stable!
Is it therefore naïve to say “Merry Christmas?” Are all the speeches and sermons on Christmas day just pious talk? Is it superficial if we make Christmas only a family feast with the romantic setting of the crib, Christmas tree and Santa Claus? If we think this way, we overlook the most important fact of Christmas. Namely that God loves this world, in all its misery, with all its suffering. God loved it so much that He sent his Son into this world, a baby in the crib, born to displaced parents, a refugee without a home, persecuted by a cruel tyrant.
Son of God came into this world to be in solidarity with us, to be with us as “Emmanuel,” God is not silent. He speaks to us! He says only one word, “Jesus!” But this is not just a WORD. It is the word that became flesh, that became reality. If we meditate on this word “Jesus,” we may discover that HE speaks within our hearts, that He inspires us to help people in need. There are thousands of people who do volunteer work to help the refugees, and to provide food for the hungry and shelter for the homeless. This is the echo that the word Jesus produces in our hearts. Yes, this world is a poor stable, but there is a star in that stable. And all the darkness in this world cannot undo the light of that “star under the roof”.
There is an interesting text called “One Solitary Life.” You may know it already. I found it on the back of a Christmas card. Let me quote it:
“One Solitary Life”
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. He had no credentials but Himself....
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
(By Dr. James Allan Francis, The real Jesus and other sermons, 1926)
We celebrate the birth of this “Solitary Life,” the birth of God’s son, Jesus Christ. We cannot deny and we do not want to deny the misery of the stable. We cannot deny and we do not want to deny the misery of our world, of wars and the refugees. But let us not overlook the child in the manger. HE is our hope, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For there is no greater joy than the one that God bestows on those who love Him.” (John 3:16)
This joy I wish you all on this day of Christmas, and for all your days. Merry Christmas!