Let Christ Into the Inn of Your Life
Homily for Christmas Mass at Dawn 2024
There is something mystical and magnificent about this day on which we celebrate God becoming one of us. We are captivated by this greatest story ever told. Think of the great sagas in English literature, like Tolkien’s, “The Lord of the Rings”; in which we are drawn into the adventure, the quest, the mission, for achieving the impossible and saving the world. Perhaps, at heart, we know the Christmas Story to be just like that. I love the words of C.S. Lewis, that, “Jesus entered the world so anonymously and clandestinely- as a baby born to insignificant parents in an out-of-the-way corner of the Roman Empire, because he was a warrior compelled to slip quietly behind enemy lines.”
Of course, like stories repeated over and over again, it might be easy for us to domesticate the plot and blur the essentials. This morning we want to enter into the drama of this great event all over again. We want to experience it with fresh eyes, ears, and hearts. This is not just a heart- warming tale in which we indulge ourselves. There is something at the heart of this Christmas event that speaks to the longing within us; it kindles a hope within us that expresses itself as joy.
So, why should the humble birth we have just read about be the cause of such joy and celebration? Quite simply, yet profoundly, this is a celebration of the birth of our Saviour, the Saviour of the human race. With this birth, salvation is made possible for us. The birth of this baby is God reaching out to us to save us.
Over and over again in the readings and prayers for this Mass we hear the words: Saviour, salvation, forgiveness, and mercy. The great announcement of this day is that “to us is born this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord,” the words of the angel to the shepherds. The reason for our joy is that we recognise God’s love for us in the birth of our Saviour.
Of course, in order to really enter into this joy and appreciate the meaning and significance of this birth, we need to truly recognise our need for salvation. Through Advent, and specifically on this Christmas Day, we are called to acknowledge our need for mercy. And an honest look at ourselves and our experience tells us that our personal lives and our world are testimony to a need for God’s grace and mercy.
One way of entering into the meaning and depth of this meaning of Christmas is through the concept of amnesty. Amnesty can be understood a general and complete pardon for all offences, a great forgiveness for past sins. Imagine that this was offered to us. Imagine that a new beginning was offered to us, that we could start from fresh, that all our faults and failings, all our regrets and sins, all our guilt could be pardoned in one great act of mercy.
What would you bring to be pardoned? What regrets would you bring for healing? What would it feel like to start again? Now consider that this is what Christmas makes possible for us. Mercy and salvation are given to us. To us is born this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. The fruit of knowing our need for a Saviour, is peace. Jesus is knocking at the doors of our hearts to give us his peace; let us open those doors to him.
The Gospel for this Mass tells the magnificent Christmas story. Allow yourself to be surprised, even shocked, as if you had just heard this story for the first time: Consider that God entered our world as a human baby. Make space for wonder and surprise this Christmas.
Just trying to get our heads around the concept that God takes on human nature is enough to overwhelm us, but even more so that instead of becoming a great warrior or political ruler, in a powerful, wealthy family, he became a tiny human baby, powerless and vulnerable, born into a poor and humble family. His parents, Mary and Joseph, had no influence or status.
With no accommodation for them in Bethlehem, they were forced to take refuge in a stable, a place used for housing animals. And there the child was born into this world, utterly dependent, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and sleeping in a manger from which animals feed, because there was no cradle or bed.
Isn’t it extraordinary that the first to welcome this new-born king, weren’t ambassadors or powerful men? Enter the shepherds. They were the first to receive news of his birth and the first to visit him. Instead of important politicians or priests of the Temple, it was these shepherds, who were the nobodies of the time, who received the news of the birth of the child and went to welcome him. They were excluded from so-called decent society. And yet, it is to these people that the birth of Jesus was first announced. Their situation opened them to awe and wonder and they were able to accept the good news. Let’s open ourselves to a fresh appreciation of the salvation that the Christ-child brings.
Let’s try to place ourselves among these shepherds. If we do not allow ourselves to be one of the shepherds, the danger is that we could fall into the trap of being one of the people inside the inn, perhaps even the innkeeper himself. For those in the inn, Joseph and Mary were nobodies, and the birth of Jesus was an irrelevance: it did not touch them, and they showed no interest. Don’t be like the innkeeper who turned the Holy Family away because there was no room at the inn. Make room for Christ in your hearts.
Our lives don’t have to be perfect for us to receive the Christmas message and welcome Jesus into our hearts. This Jesus can handle our chaos and confusion, and he seeks out those who are on the margins, excluded and despised. He seeks each one of us out. This Christmas the appeal is that we make room for Christ in our hearts. If we invite the Christ-child into the inn of our lives, then Christmas will take on a profound meaning and fill our lives with hope. Jesus wants to come into our lives as they are - imperfect, frequently messy, often confused. Wherever we may find ourselves this Christmas, God wants to show us his love for us and give us peace as it is wrapped in this tiny child of Bethlehem. It is as if Mary puts the Christ-child into our arms.
Pope St Paul VI said one Christmas: “God could have come wrapped in glory, splendour, light and power, to instil fear, to make us rub our eyes in amazement. But instead, he came as the smallest, the frailest and weakest of beings. Why? So that no one would be ashamed to approach him, so that no one would be afraid, so that all would be close to him and draw near him, so that there would be no distance between us and him.”
God has come close; he has entered our world and our lives so that each of us can speak intimately with him, trust him, draw near to him. Who could feel threatened by a baby? This Christmas come close to the Christ-child; don’t be afraid of him; speak to him and trust him because he thinks of you and loves you.
Pope Francis has said: “God is in love with us. He becomes small to help us love him in return.” This Christmas we are invited to ponder the God who so desires our love that he became a tiny child at Bethlehem. We are invited to love the Christ-child.
Today we acclaim with St Paul, as we hear in the second reading for Mass, from his Letter to Titus, that the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour has appeared for the salvation of all people. This is the great amnesty, the gift of mercy, that the birth of our Saviour brings. We see the grace and mercy of God summed up in the new-born Christ.
