Father Abbot's Christmas Homily
You will pardon me if my remarks to you this night are brief, but I don’t have much of a voice.
Tonight, the Church stands in awe at the crib in Bethlehem and is caught up in the joy and
wonder of the heavenly choir singing ‘Gloria’. How can we best enter into the mystery of what
we celebrate in this liturgy? The answer lies in the liturgy itself, and especially in the readings
from the Old and New Testaments. Over the course of four Masses, listen to what they tell us:
No more shall people call you “Forsaken,”
or your land “Desolate,”
but you shall be called “My Delight,”
and your land “Espoused.”
For the LORD delights in you
and makes your land his spouse.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
The angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways
to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son,
whom he made heir of all things
and through whom he created the universe,
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
It is a vast story reaching back to the beginning of creation, a story of how God would not
stand by and see his beloved creatures sink into the depths of sin, darkness and despair,
but would reach out to them, little by little, stage by stage, in order to lead them gradually,
gently, until they would be able to see the full brightness of the light that comes from the
Incarnate Word of God in their midst, their salvation. This is the grace and truth that is
revealed to us in Jesus Christ, and the great message of Christmas is that we can
participate in the mystery of the Incarnation through faith, through our participation in the
Sacraments and the life of the Church, through our recognition of Christ present in one
another, and in our encounter with Christ in the depths of our hearts.
But we live in a world that is still so much in darkness, and if we are to take Christmas to
heart, then its light must radiate outward from us every day of the year, in all our
encounters with others, in every relationship. The Incarnation raised humanity to a dignity
beyond compare, and as long as that dignity is stained in our world by injustice, by conflict
and oppression, we must witness to humanity’s enduring value by our actions, our words,
our prayers, our very lives.
So, on this Christmas night, let us rejoice that God has indeed visited his people, has visited
us. And let us pledge ourselves to live out the mystery of Christmas in the days to come,
that the world may know that Jesus Christ is born.