Above you'll find the audio for my homily for Christmas Eve. While in Georgetown, I don't have the services of my faithful videographer which I especially missed this weekend because I used some props in my homily. (Some may remember that I've used these props before - but the larger share of the rest of my homily is new.) I began with comparing the differences in how a woman or a man might open a Christmas gift - by opening two wrapped boxes. On the audio, you'll easily pick up the feminine approach - and her finally finding a gift of colorful socks. The masculine approach is verbal - I opened the gift card - and shook it to see if a some cash or a check might fall out - then I opened the gift box and threw the tissue paper inside all over the sanctuary floor. All this I did at a small table in the middle of the sanctuary and the pick up on the mic wasn't perfect. But the main portion of my homily was delivered at the ambo where the sound is fine. Between the audio above and the text below - I think it will come together for you! (If a video doesn't appear above - click here!)
Have you ever noticed that women and
men open Christmas gifts - differently. You have?
This is how a woman opens a gift. “A
card! It's beautiful! Where did you find these? It’s a beautiful verse and this
little note here from you - thank you so much. Look at this box! I'm saving
this for next year. I can't really imagine what’s in here… Oh! I don't know how
you knew! But I had been looking at these in the store for weeks and I was
hoping that somebody might get these for me for me for Christmas! I I'm gonna put
them on right now.”
A man. “Thank you.. Socks – they look great.”
Wrapping and unwrapping. Christmas is
all about wrapping and unwrapping. Gifts under the tree? Yes. But even more…
Christmas is about the Divine on wrapping itself and revealing to the human
mind, to the human heart, imagination, conscience, and intuition - unwrapping
for us to see - what is true, holy and wise.
This all began with Divinity wrapping
itself in Mary's womb. For nine months, Divinity was hidden in the body of a
young Jewish woman. After a few months, of course, everybody could see just by
looking at Mary that she was carrying a gift, wrapped in her own flesh and
bone.
And then Mary delivered her gift, and
in unwrapping her child, she gave us Jesus - the very Word of God, the truth
and peace of God - in the flesh.
And curiously, as soon as Mary unwrapped
Jesus from her room, she wrapped him up again - in swaddling clothes. She
wrapped him - so that he might feel like he was still in the womb - where it
had been so warm and so close and intimate and safe.
And having wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, you know what she did next? She put him in a box. She put Jesus in a
box - a feed box - that goes by the name manger. A feed box. If you know
a little bit of French, you know that the word manger comes from manger,
to eat. How appropriate then that Jesus in the last hours of his life
would wrap himself in food and drink in bread and wine - that we might eat and
drink of his love, that he would become food for our souls, that we might take
him into ourselves, into the womb of our heart, and carry him there, as did Mary,
his mother.
Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling
clothes, and now Jesus wants to swaddle us, to wrap us in his mercy, his
peace, in his arms.
Wrapping and unwrapping.
Well, is there anything practical in
all of this? Is there some lesson here that extends beyond Christmas Eve and
into our daily lives?
There is.
Jesus calls you and me, not just on
December 24 or 25th, but on every day of the year, Jesus calls all of us to unwrap
ourselves as gifts for each other… To unwrap myself and to offer my neighbor my
mercy, my peace, my arms. The Lord calls me to embrace and keep
safe those who live on the margins of my family. The margins of my
neighborhood, on the edge of society. And the Lord calls you and me to feed and
to nourish others with our own resources: to feed those who are hungry
for food and hungry for freedom; to slake the thirst of those who are thirsty
for justice and for dignity.
Jesus unwrapped his divinity by surrendering
all that was rightfully his, as the Son of God. Now he calls on me and
you, he calls on me to surrender what may seem to be rightfully mine - but in
doing so, reveal the image of God within me, the image of God within you - the
divine image in which each of us was created. Jesus calls on me to unwrap
myself - to free me to wrap others in all that I have to offer.
Making this message practical means
applying it to every situation we find in our families, in our nation,
in the news, in the world.
So…
- whatever the question, the tension, the conflict or dilemma I face
- no matter who I perceive to be my adversary, my enemy, my opponent, my
rival
- in spite of how convinced justified, confident, and certain I am of my
take on things,
- regardless of how hard I've worked to have what I have,
to own what I own
this night and every day, Jesus calls me to unwrap
myself: first, to see what I have to offer, and then to discern
how, in humility, I might thank God for all my blessings - and devise
how I might begin to share them more freely with others.
The greatest gift I have to give at
Christmas - is the very same gift I have to offer every day of the year.
The greatest gift I have to give at
Christmas is the humbling of myself to the message of Jesus - that I love my
neighbor as myself.
The greatest gift I have to unwrap at
Christmas is the free offering of the bounty that's mine to those who have so
much less, or nothing at all.
The greatest gift I have to give at
Christmas is the surrender of myself to the love of God, who surrendered himself
for me in Jesus, his son - in Jesus, my neighbor, my sister and
brother at home at work, next door, anywhere around the world, anywhere where
Christ is wrapped and bound: in the grip of hunger and homelessness; in the
terror of war; or in the chains of injustice.
God is smart! God unwrapped himself as
a newborn child because he knew we would be drawn to a baby - who isn't drawn
to a baby – “Can I hold a baby?”
He revealed himself that was so that
we would reach out to care for, to protect and defend one so innocent,
helpless, and dependent on others for life itself and for love.
If this message tonight hasn't made
each of us feel at least a little uncomfortable - then I have not been
as clear as I wanted to be.
In unwrapping divinity as a child, as
an infant, God delivered himself into our hands as vulnerable,
defenseless, exposed, unarmed, fragile, powerless. You know: human…
As human as the person, as the people,
I am least inclined to acknowledge and welcome, and accept and embrace,
and love as the brothers and sisters they are.
So, perhaps we can pray tonight that first:
we find that Christmas grace to unwrap ourselves for the sake of others. And
second, that we do that unwrapping with the attention and the care - with which
a woman unwraps a Christmas gift. And with the urgency in the drive - with
which a man does the same thing.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In
Hebrew, Bethlehem means "house of bread.” So we are gathered in this
house of bread, this house of the Eucharist. We go to the Lord's table, where
once again, this Christmas Eve, Jesus will wrap himself - in gifts of
bread and wine - to feed and swaddle us
in his mercy, in his peace and in his love.
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