{"id":1257,"date":"2013-12-25T08:42:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T13:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2013-12-25T08:42:28","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T13:42:28","slug":"homily-christmas-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-christmas-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – Christmas 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas 2013, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 9:1-6
\nTitus 2:11-14
\nLuke 2:1-14
\nDecember 25, 2013<\/p>\n

This summer a prince in line to the throne of England was born.\u00a0 As a king-to-be, he was born in a private suite in the hospital.\u00a0 There were people waiting outside the hospital as soon as they knew mom had gone to the hospital.\u00a0 The news media was watching closely.<\/p>\n

Many, not just those in England, were on \u201cbaby watch\u201d.\u00a0 The sensation didn\u2019t end with his birth as people waited to hear his name. There was a lot of attention put on this \u2018newborn king.\u2019<\/p>\n

We are here today to celebrate a birth and we decorate our church to look beautiful for such a special occasion.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got flowers, trees with ornaments and lights, and ribbon.<\/p>\n

The trees remind us of everlasting life.\u00a0 The lights remind us how Christ is the light of the world.\u00a0 Today we have much fanfare, and rightly so, for our celebration of our Savior\u2019s birth but it was not so at his actual birth.<\/p>\n

We hear in our gospel and we see it in our manger scene.\u00a0 Jesus was not born in a grandiose setting fit for the newborn king of the Jews.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t born at home or a hospital or even an inn.\u00a0 The only space was in a stable amongst animals where he laid in a manger.<\/p>\n

In the way it came to be, fulfilling prophecies, we see the fulfillment of God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 Why won\u2019t God plan for an elite setting for the birth of His Son?<\/p>\n

Jesus didn\u2019t come to look good.\u00a0 Jesus came for us<\/i>.\u00a0 To show us this, Jesus was born into humble circumstances so there would be no confusion of the average person being able to relate to Jesus.<\/p>\n

Jesus knows what it is look to be born as a baby, totally dependent on others.\u00a0 Jesus knows what it\u2019s like to grow through childhood and to become an adult.\u00a0 Jesus, as the son of a carpenter, knows what it is like to work for a living.<\/p>\n

All this for us.<\/p>\n

It was a very simple setting.\u00a0 No news media, no \u2018groupies\u2019 In fact the only way anyone knew immediately about Jesus\u2019 birth was because God sent an angel to tell the shepherds and God will send a star to guide the magi.<\/p>\n

It was a simple setting 2,000 years ago but today it is a great celebration because we have come to realize who Jesus is and all that he has done for us.<\/p>\n

The first Christmas began a new age.\u00a0 Today is a very holy day and people come forth in great numbers for our celebration.<\/p>\n

Probably many of you have already had some Christmas parties at school or work, with families and\/or friends but it is awesome to see so many people here for our Masses.<\/p>\n

To me, our celebration here is what Christmas is really all about so I am pleased to see so many here.\u00a0 God is also very pleased and we would love to see it like this all the time.<\/p>\n

I see some regulars here and I see visitors.\u00a0 For our visitors, some of you may have travelled from a far to be with family.\u00a0 We are glad you got here safely and pray for your safe return home.\u00a0 Some of you may belong to other churches but our Christmas schedule works for you.\u00a0 Some of you may be people who come once in a while.\u00a0 For some of you, it may be your first time in church in several years.\u00a0 Right now it doesn\u2019t matter where you have been.\u00a0 We\u2019re just glad you are here for our special celebration.<\/p>\n

I think it is because we celebrate something so special that we have so many here.\u00a0 Some come as regulars.\u00a0 Some come because \u201cthat\u2019s what we do at Christmas.\u201d\u00a0 Some come \u2018because Grandma said so. \u00a0Sometimes I think we get tired and want some peace in the midst of the holiday busyness.<\/p>\n

We are just glad you are here today and want you to know you are welcome to come back as often as you wish.<\/p>\n

Jesus draws all here.\u00a0 Maybe we don\u2019t feel worthy to be here.\u00a0 On our own we might not be. \u00a0Jesus gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to make us worthy through his death on Cross.\u00a0 If you think you might need to go to confession, we stand ready every Saturday from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. or anytime by appointment.\u00a0 Don\u2019t know what to do? There are materials hanging outside the confessional.<\/p>\n

Today God shows us his love in the birth of his Son and our Savior Jesus.\u00a0 The grace of God has appeared and brings us hope.\u00a0 We need hope or we could not survive.<\/p>\n

Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.\u00a0 Let us rejoice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas 2013, Year A Isaiah 9:1-6 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14 December 25, 2013 This summer a prince in line to the throne of England was born.\u00a0 As a king-to-be, he was born in a private suite in the hospital.\u00a0 There were people waiting outside the hospital as soon as they knew mom had gone to …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – Christmas 2013’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-kh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1258,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions\/1258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}