Christmas Homily - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

The strange thing about celebrating Christmas in a parish rather than a private home is that all of the big cupboards are empty.  The Advent wreath has been out all month.  We are burning through the candles at a cool summer’s rate.  And now the Nativity set is out too. So, our cupboards are bare because all God’s gifts to you are out on display.

I hope you have a lovely nativity set at home.  Our family one was always up on a bench: low enough to see, high enough to be out of reach!

Nativity sets are one of those symbols of our celebration. They are a three-dimensional image: they capture just one aspect of today's great Mystery.  There’s more to the Christmas message than what we see in the crib, but what we see is true.

The Nativity set shows us that the Son of God was born into a human family, who stayed together in a stable one winter’s night.  We say: though the Son of God was born in a stable, we make a home for him at our place.  We hope he stays with us forever.

These Nativity sets of ours tell the Christmas story on earth; but how would we tell the Christmas story from heaven?  How would we depict what is going on today from heaven’s side?  It's tricky, because whatever we display is only part of the story too; the event itself hasn’t finished yet.  We know the full story of Christmas is not yet finally fulfilled because you and I are still on earth.

But if we were to depict heaven’s view on today's Mystery, the newborn would be you and me.  In heaven’s eye today is our new birth, not on a bed of dry grass but in a blaze of divine glory: this, because our humanity has been assumed by God.  He who made our humanity has made it his own.

In our heavenly nativities, we newborns to glory would be surrounded by Mary and Joseph and the angels just as we see Jesus is here.  This is the company even now we keep.  We would also see ourselves not in a troubled city of this imperfect country but in the eternal city of royal peace.  And most important of all, the viewer of our heavenly Nativity is none other than God the Father in whom is all-life. This is our destiny, thanks to Christ who has made it so.

Christmas promises us new life and a new home.  As we look at the Nativity set here on earth, we see God who seems to have lost everything, but in fact has gained us.  Today is born in us the hope of world without end in Christ.  To this we look forward.

There is much to trouble us, perhaps this year more than others.  Our prayer this day is peace in Christ for all, without exception.  We might ever allow those troubles of life, those worries of this world to drive us towards God.  Today we may rely on him, trust him again.  For he has made our humanity his own.

The Son of God took upon himself our humanity - with all its heartbreaks and blemishes. This is also that we would take on his divinity - through him we get to live in heaven.

We welcome the Christ-child among us once again, knowing that in his tiny body is all the fullness of God.  In him there is life.  In him there is hope.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP Parish Priest