Homily for Christmas_2020

Isaiah 9:1-6; Acts 13:16-17,22-25; Luke 2:1-14

Fr. Antony Akkanath

In my simple understanding, Christmas is all about God saying "I Love You” to each one of us living in this world! Why I think so is because in the gospel of John 3:16 we read, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".

What beautiful statement that is! God has so much love for this world. It means God loves each one of us; He loves you and me! When someone is in love he or she likes to be with one another always. The presence matters a lot in love and relationships. Therefore we have so many beautiful prophecies and expressions in the Sacred Scriptures about God’s love for us and also about His presence among us. In the Gospel of St. Mathew 1:23 we read; “And they will call his name Immanuel, which means ‘God is with Us’.

Immanuel is a term which first appears in the Bible in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign; the virgin will conceive, and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Emmanuel”.

In the first reading today taken from Isaiah 9:6 the prophet adds further to his prophecy; “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, …… he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Is: 9:6). God's love for us is manifested in many ways in all these prophecies.

But now I would like to ask myself this question; If God loves us so much, why then there is so much suffering and pain in this world? Especially during this year of pandemic, this question is all the more relevant because we are going through one of the worst and darkest experiences of our lifetime. Until today 1.7 million people worldwide have died and almost 76 million people are infected with the CoronaVirus.

One of the prominent questions that was raised to the religious heads and spiritual leaders this year was, where is your God in Pandemic?

A few months back I read a beautiful article in New York Times newspaper on the same topic, written by a Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin. Like most of us, he too was met with an avalanche of feelings during this year: Panic, anger, sadness, loneliness, frustration, confusion and uncertainties about the future. The problem of suffering or the mystery of Evil is one of most discussed and debated topics in the theological circles from time immemorial. Even many great saints and theologians have grappled with this question for many years. The most genuine answer to give for the question where God is in Pandemic….is ‘We do not know’!

Sometimes I find the simple, poor and ordinary lay people have more faith in God during difficult times than the privileged ones. They never point fingers at God for the pain and sufferings they go through in this world. They silently suffer everything and pray earnestly trusting in God’ love and protection, till their last breath. Because more than the so called theologians and scholars, they know from their own daily life experiences that the pain and suffering which is present in this world has something to do with our own failed relationship with God and our fellow beings. If we analyse in detail all the happenings in the world of today we can easily understand that most of these problems in the world is the result of our own irresponsible behaviour towards our own environment and our fellow beings. If it is so, why do then even good and innocent people suffer? Why do even the innocent children die?

For most of our questions regarding pain and suffering in this world we have an answer in Jesus Christ our Saviour whose Birthday we are celebrating today. We heard, in the first reading, the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who dwelt in a land of darkness a light shone”.

During these darkest moments that we are living through, the only light we can rely on is the light which had shone in Bethlehem on a cold winter night about 2000 years ago.

St. John in his Gospel would rightly put this event of the birth of Jesus in a simple statement as ‘in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (Jn.1:4-5).

When God’s own Son was born into this world, it was in a worse and darker situation than the present situation that we are living now.

In the Gospels, the evangelist Luke narrates in detail that when Jesus was born the People of Israel were under the Imperial Roman rule. They were ruled by very heartless and ruthless Roman Emperors and their cruel vassal kings like Herod. Joseph and a pregnant Mary had to make a gruelling trip of almost 145 kilometres from Nazareth to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. Soon after his birth his parents had to run for life with the newborn. So many innocent children had to give up their life because of a mad ruler's anger and pride. The parents of Jesus also had to face the issue of missing their beloved child like many parents of our own times!

During his public ministry, Jesus was surrounded by people who were living in miserable conditions. There were people who were poor, blind, lame lepers, outcasts and people who suffered every other sicknesses of those times. But it was Jesus, who showed them love and compassion, it was he who taught them that sufferings and illnesses are not the result of the sin of any person but they happen that the work of God might be displayed (Jn.9:3). It was he who healed them from all their ailments. Jesus also showed people with his own life how to live in obedience and in faith even in the worst situations of life. He with his own life gave the extreme example of enduring suffering of crucifixion and dying the most unjust death on a cross.

So my dear friends, the message of Christmas is not only of Joy, Peace and Love, but it has a significant message of trusting God even in pain and suffering. The birthday celebration of Jesus tells us that our life on this earth is a mixture of sadness-happiness, struggles-victory, uncertainty-hope, loss-gain, good-evil, mistakes-lessons. The celebration of Christmas again and again reminds us never to lose our hope and faith even in the most adverse situations of our lives. The birth of our Saviour refreshes our minds with some important life lessons; no matter what you and me are going through at this present moment, God still loves you and me. God knows each one of us and He will definitely save us and deliver us from all evils.

Dear friends, today let us ask ourselves; how should I respond to this Love of God? The best response that we can give to God is to accept and welcome the gift of Child Jesus into our hearts. All of us like to give and receive gifts. Some people find more joy in giving gifts than receiving them and some others like receiving gifts than giving. Most of the people, when they give a gift to someone they also expect something in return. That is quite natural. Every Christmas Celebration becomes meaningful when we accept the 'Son of God' as a gift from God and give a place for him in our hearts. And as a return gift what we can give to God is to listen to His Son and walk always on the way that he has taught and he has shown us. By sending His son among us, God has said to us: 'I love you', Now it is our turn to say to Him 'Love you too' and show Him how we live and share this love to God and all our fellow beings.

If you have observed anyone working in the medical field during these pandemic days, then we can easily understand where God is present during pandemic. I firmly believe that God provides His loving presence, care and compassion through His own people; doctors, nurses, and all types of caregivers. I myself have come across a lot of self-sacrificing and dedicated noble souls, working day and night, giving all possible comfort, care and consolation to those suffering from Coronavirus as well as to the family members of the departed ones. Most of these caregivers are God loving, faithful people. They put their trust in God. That is why they are rightly called ‘angels on earth’. All of them know very well the risks involved in their work. But we never heard any of them running away from these pains and sufferings and blaming God. They understand that if they ever do such a thing, they can never call themselves as children of God. There are also so many other good Samaritans reaching out to the poor and needy, silently giving a helping hand by providing the people the basic necessities of life.

Anything that we do at this Christmas and the coming New Year, let it always be a testimony for our love for God and our fellow beings. Let us pray that by following the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, help us to grow and mature in our faith so that we may be able to announce the good news of God’s love to others with our life. Let us hope that the grace of Christmas helps us always in our pilgrimage on this earth, overcoming all our pains, sufferings, fears and uncertainty. May the light which had shone in Bethlehem change us radically and make us new people capable of announcing to the whole world that true Light: Christ Jesus, who was born for us today.

Happy Birthday Jesus...I Love you.