Manor College Certification Program
Christmas Homily 2008
I think that devout people are sometimes a little envious of the shepherds and the Magi. I think some of us wish we had been there, that we could have seen the Holy Infant in the manger, or seen the Toddler on his mother’s lap in their house. But, to be honest, we are probably better off than they were. They saw him in his physical body as it existed before his resurrection, while we see him as he chooses to appear in his risen and glorified body. They saw him for only a few minutes, whereas we can see him far more often than that if we choose. Perhaps one or another of the shepherds of Magi might have touched him, or even held him, but we are allowed more; we may caress him within the tissues of our own body.
You still don’t think we are better off than the shepherds and the magi? Consider this, that the one who made this world—for without him nothing was made—also scripted his ministry upon the earth. When we are first getting to know someone we often ask, where do you come from? We expect that someone who answers, “I was born in Washington DC” will be different than someone who says, “I was born in Racine, Wisconsin.” We expect someone from Washington to have been exposed to a more cosmopolitan culture and have more liberal values, while someone born in Racine would have more traditional values and a more conservative bent. So the One whose birth we celebrate today arranged that he be born in Bethlehem, Hebrew for “House of Bread.” And why “House of Bread”? Was he giving us a clue—some token—by which we might recognize him when he appears after his resurrection? If his risen body could appear and disappear, and if he could change his appearance so that two of his disciples could not recognize him as they walked a good way talking with him and then—and only then—recognize him in the breaking of the bread, could he not appear in the guise of bread?
Oh, you might say, this is true but more appropriate for Easter. Say something to us about Christmas. Alright, consider this, there would be no Easter without Christmas, for Christ would have no human body with which to die and descend to the dead and conquer death itself in so doing. Christ had to confront death on its battlefield, and for that he needed to assume flesh. By taking flesh and becoming Man Christ has consecrated our flesh and blood, and made it the vehicle of salvation, and so his birth is the celebration of our possibilities, our challenge. While the devil might have laughed at our crude flesh at one time, now he is humiliated by it. No Christmas, no Easter. Christ is born, glorify him!