Homily for Christmas 2018

Homily for Christmas 2018
Scriptures for today's Mass

Audio

 

I have a question for you.

Have you ever received a nicely packaged Christmas gift which,

when you opened it up, turned out to actually be a - FRUIT CAKE?

And more to the point:

have you ever received a fruit cake which you suspected was

a RE-GIFTED fruit cake.

Perpetually circulating re-gifted fruit cakes are the stuff of legends

- or is it only MYTH?

I’ve never received a fruit cake from anyone,

not a fresh one, not a re-gifted one.

Nor do I actually know of anyone

who has actually received a re-gifted fruit cake.

In general, I think re-gifting is fine.

I’ve received gifts which I suspect were re-gifted items.

And truth be told:  I have, on occasion, re-gifted to someone else

a present I had received.

Of course you have to be careful when you’re re-gifting.]

First of all, you have to be careful not to re-gift a present

back to the person who gave it to you in the first place!

• If you’re re-gifting a book , for instance,

make sure that it doesn’t bear an inscription

from the person who first gave it to you.

If it says inside the front cover,

“For you at Christmas time, with love, John and Mary”

you don’t want to re-gift that book to Bill and Patty.

• If you’re re-gifting a lovely scarf to someone,

you want to make sure it doesn’t still carry

the scent of your perfume from that one time you wore it!

• Re-gifting a nice $50.00 gift card?

Call and check the balance to make sure

you haven’t already used half of it!

• It’s Christmas Eve and Uncle Henry has stopped by the house

and you have no gift for him

and you’re desperate enough to re-gift him some undershorts

 Just remember they need to be in the original package

and factory-sealed.

Actually, the tradition of re-gifting is at the very heart of Christmas.

Theologically speaking,

the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) the persons in the Trinity

share with each other  a communion of love.

an eternal triune of sharing, giving and receiving love.

From the heart of the Trinity God’s love is re-gifted to us

in God’s Word become flesh for us in a Child born in a stable.

And Christmas is meant to remind us       

that we are called to re-gift to others

the love God has given to each of us in Christ.

The greatest gift any of us might give or receive at Christmas,              

is the re-gifting of God’s LOVE for us in Jesus.

Who in my life and yours needs the gift of LOVE?

I want you to pause for a moment and in your heart,

and answer that question with the names of some people you know

and resolve to find ways to share God’s love with those people

in the new year ahead.

And FAITH is a gift from God, a gift we’re meant to re-gift to others.

Has there ever been an age when there’s been a greater need for faith,

for trusting in God in good times and in bad?

Who in my life and yours needs us to share with them

the gift of our FAITH?

It was the gift of faith that drew you here tonight to pray.

Even if you haven’t been in a place like this since last Easter

or last Christmas Eve - it was faith that drew you here tonight.

I want you to pause for a moment and in your heart,

and ask who in my life needs me to share my faith with them.

Name these people and resolve to find ways

to share your faith with them in the year ahead.

           

And HOPE is a gift from God, another gift we’re meant to re-gift to others.

Who in my life and in yours needs the gift of hopefulness?

So many people these days feel hopeless

in the face of so many burdens, troubles, worries and fears,

in the face of what’s happening in the world, in our nation,

and in our Church.

Who in my life and yours needs the gift of HOPE?

I want you to pause for a moment and in your heart,

answer that question with the names of some people you know

and resolve to find ways to share with those people,

in the new year ahead, the HOPE that sustains you in your life.

Indeed, all good gifts come from the heart and the hand of God.

So whatever you and I might share with others

has already been given to us by God.

That means that everything we give is a RE-GIFTING

of what God has already given us.

All of life is re-gifting!

We re-gift the gift of life when we bring children into the world.

We re-gift the gift of creation when we care for the environment.

We re-gift God’s blessings to us when we exercise fair stewardship

over our goods and possessions,

especially in caring for the poor and the marginalized.

And the greatest gifts we have for re-gifting

are gifts that are already ours:

these are gifts that can’t be bought online or in a store,

can’t be packaged or boxed or wrapped or ribboned,

can’t be mailed or e-mailed

and can’t be brought back and returned or exchanged at the mall.

The greatest gifts we have for re-gifting

are exchanged person-to-person, heart-to-heart, life-to-life.

As you know, this is my 25^th Christmas in Concord

and my last Christmas in Concord.

Looking back on a quarter of a century, more than a third of my life,

the list of the gifts of faith, hope and the love of God

that you’ve re-gifted to me is longer than I can begin to imagine.

I am so grateful, so very grateful

for all the re-gifted presents you’ve left in my heart.

And everything I’ve given you over these many years

was first God’s gift to me so I’ve spent the last 25 years re-gifting you

with what God has been so generous in giving me.

We come together now for Christmas 2018

and we gather at the altar where Jesus re-gifts his love to us,

the love he first gave us from the arms of his Cross.

At this, his table, he offers, he gives us again the gift of his life,

his Body and Blood, in the gift of the Eucharist.

He who died on Calvary was born in Bethlehem

and Bethlehem means, “House of Bread.”

We come to share in the breaking of that Bread

which is his life and love broken and given for us.

Pray that we will share, we will re-gift to others in our lives,

the peace and the joy that’s ours in Christ Jesus the Lord.

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