Happy Christmas

We wish all our readers many graces and blessings during the Christmas season.
Here we share with you a Christmas reflection

 

Christmas Homily

At the Office of Readings during the coming week we read:

Behold God the Father has sent down to earth as it were a bag filled with His Mercy; a bag to be rent open in the Passion so that our ransom which it concealed might be poured out; a small bag indeed, but full.  It is indeed a small child who is given to us, but in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.  (From a sermon by St Bernard).

 

We celebrate tonight God’s coming among us – not as a man of power but as a baby.  He could have chosen to come as a fully grown man but he comes as a vulnerable baby and what could be more helpless than a newborn baby? He could have chosen rich parents who would provide the maximum amount of comfort – but he chose Mary and Joseph, both poor in material things but with hearts wide open to receive all the love which this Baby wishes to bestow.  The Good News is first proclaimed to simple shepherds, the outcasts, those without status while “His own people did not receive Him” (John 1: )

In our yearly celebration of Christmas we remember his coming in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago and we look forward to his second coming and our going to him at the moment of death.  However there is a third coming which is as real and as important as the other two – the one for which we have prepared during the weeks of Advent - it is His coming to us in the grace of the Mystery which we celebrate.  Yes He comes to each of us personally and only desires an open heart ready to receive all that He wishes to give.  He was not ashamed to be born in a stable with the animals around – now He desires to come to the stable of our hearts, no matter how poor, sinful or miserable.  He stands at the door knocking, waiting for our ‘yes’ as he waited on Mary’s ‘yes’ - He needs our hearts to pray His prayer and radiate His love in our restless modern world.

Throughout the ages He is the One who takes the initiative in coming to us – He tells Moses that He is “well aware of the suffering of His people” and comes to rescue them.  He reveals Himself as “the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”  In his letter to Titus, St Paul reminds us that God our Father was not concerned with any righteous actions we ourselves might have done – it was for no reason except his own compassion that He saved us.  During this extraordinary Year of Mercy, no doubt, He “comes to assist us in our weakness” and (to quote Pope Francis) “His help consists in helping us to accept His presence and closeness to us.”  Day by day as we are touched by His compassion, He asks that we too become more generous and compassionate towards others.  We are called to be credible witnesses to the Mercy of our Father – professing it and living it as the core of the revelation of Jesus Christ. The challenge for us is: “will we open our hearts to receive all He wants to give us this Christmas? 

May Mary, the Mother of Mercy, who accompanied her Son from His birth in Bethlehem to His death on Calvary, watch over us and teach us to “discover the joy of God’s tenderness” and to be faithful to our mission as Dominican Nuns of perpetuating Dominic’s prayer for sinners and all the down-trodden, the afflicted and all the poor suffering people of our world.  May our celebration of this Christmas be a source of light and joy for the whole Church and our world.