May
my words be in the name of the Holy & Undivided Trinity: Father,
Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen.
And
so, at last, we have reached the destination we have been journeying
toward; for all of Advent has been a journey to Christmas and the
birth of our Lord which we celebrate this night. Indeed, we might
say that all of human history before it was a journey to the night
when Christ was born and the long-awaited Messiah, who would save us
from our sins, would enter into our world. That night is pointed to
again and again in Sacred Scripture, as God spoke to man through his
prophets, promising a Saviour to his fallen children, beginning in
Genesis as our first parents were cast out of the garden when he told
Satan, in the form of the serpent, that he would send one born of
woman who would crush his head. And the prophecies went into such
specific detail so that all who had their hearts truly open to God
could be in no doubt that the words of the prophets had been
fulfilled in Jesus: Isaiah, for example, telling us that he would be
of David's line and born of a virgin; and Micah that his birth would
take place in Bethlehem.
And
so, even as we gather this night to celebrate his birth, others
gathered on that night to gaze in wonder at this child who had come
into the world: the Blessed Virgin, his mother, of course; but also
St Joseph, the righteousness man who was her espoused husband; and
the shepherds who watched their flocks by night also came to wonder.
And then there were the angels who burst forth out of heaven;
expressing their great joy that God's plan is being fulfilled, that
God has been made man, and that as a result the men and women of this
earth would now have the opportunity to one day be with them in
heaven for all eternity as God intended when he created them. And far
away others are beginning their journey so that they may also gather
worship this child that has been born, the great kings from the East,
men who in their wisdom understood the prophecies and signs that God
had given mankind and that an even greater king than they had been
born – a king for all mankind, as the presence of these men from a
faraway land showed, a king for men and women of all places and all
ages.
What
a wonderful gathering there was to see that Christ-child. Is it any
wonder that down through the centuries people have sought to gather
by his side themselves in their imaginations? That is why we create
crib scenes and place them in our churches, under our Christmas trees
and on our mantelpieces, and in public places such as shopping
centres, hospitals, and even in the streets and squares of our towns.
Those people who gathered long ago were driven by a deep-seated human
desire to see the long awaited Messiah face to face; and that desire
has never been erased. How could it be? The coming into our world of
the Christ is the event upon which the salvation of us all depends;
how could we not long to see him?
And so perhaps we even envy those
who were blessed long ago with that particular gift from God to be
present that night? But we need not, for we have our own
particular blessings, sent to us by God also, that allow us to meet
with Christ for ourselves.
We
can him in the face of every man and woman we meet, especially those
in need. 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat' he tells us in the
Gospels; because what we do for the least of our brethren we do for
him. We meet him when come together as the gathered community of
God's faithful people, because the Church, as St Paul tells us, is
the Body of Christ. And we meet with him when we partake of the
Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. This
is my Body, this is my Blood he told the Apostles at the Last Supper.
And these three way of meeting Christ of which I speak are not
separate but intimately connected. For Christ also told his followers
that if they did not eat his body and drink his blood they had no
life in them, making partaking of this sacrament as essential to our
life as breathing itself. And this sacrament can only be partaken of
when we gather together as his Body, when we come together as his
Church, most often in church. And that supernatural food acts as a
channel of God's grace in us, a means of his grace entering into us,
strengthening to live our lives according to his commands, including
giving us the faith to see Christ in the face of all we see.
So
we have the opportunity to see Christ in many ways as we gather this
night, and not only in our imaginations. This night as we gather as
his people and his Church to celebrate the Holy Eucharist he is
really and truly among us, just as he was that first night in
Bethlehem. The joy and the wonder of Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and
the angels is our also this night. And I pray that it will be yours
always. Amen.