Fr. Tom Lamanna, S.J.: The most important gift is the gift of Jesus
This is a homily written for a Children’s Christmas Mass. In it, I try to get across points of Christian spirituality that are part of the Jesuit tradition.
We are loved by God, but we can be selfish or have stingy-hearted responses to that love. The more we know Jesus Christ, the more we will want to imitate him even though we will continue to sin. This love will not take away suffering, but love endures, even death. It is our part to choose faith, which leads to hope.
Night of Profound Love
There’s a Christmas show in which a mail carrier tells the story of Kris Kringle, who is Santa Claus. Maybe you’ve seen it. I loved it when I was a boy; I still do. Near the end of the story, the mail carrier tells how Santa decided to bring gifts to children one night each year, and he had to choose a night. Well, he and Mrs. Claus talked it over (now, Mrs. Claus also worked very hard and loved to help in giving gifts to children). They were a team. They decided that the night to give gifts would be Christmas because Christmas is a night that celebrates “profound love.”
Profound love: That means love that is very deep, and very strong. Giving gifts is an act of love, so Santa and Mrs. Claus wanted to be part of a holiday that is about the greatest love – God’s love for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
The most important thing we can know in life is that God loves us. God loves Santa and Mrs. Claus, God loves your family, your mom and dad, your grandparents, and God loves you. God is not the only one who loves you – your family and friends, they love you, too. They teach us about God’s love because they are loved and they in turn love you. Love works this way, it is given to others after it is received, it is not to be hung onto only for me. The love for you that is in the hearts of your grandparents and parents, or those who love like that, is really deep;It is profound.
So, we get gifts on Christmas, gifts that are given out of love, but the most important gift is the gift of Jesus, which is what we celebrate tonight at church. Jesus is a gift to Mary, his mother, and Joseph, his father; Jesus is a gift to the shepherds and angels we heard about in tonight’s Gospel and that we see in the manger, the one here in the church and the one in your home. Jesus was a gift to the people of Israel when he was born, and Jesus is a gift to us today. He is a gift of love to be received and shared. Sometimes we get gifts that we do not want to share, other times we give gifts, but we have expectations about how the other person will use the gift and appreciate the gift. But those are not things that teach us about love at all, or if they do it is by example of what selfish giving and receiving is like.
The Gospel story from St. Luke tells us about faith, praise and thanksgiving, and how to act when we get these gifts. We hear that the angels praised God, rejoiced and said, “Do not be afraid,” and “Peace on Earth.”
The shepherds believed what the angels said to them;They saw Mary and Joseph loving Jesus, and the shepherds went away from the manger glorifying and praising God, giving thanks that God wanted to help them. Christmas celebrates profound love and is a season of profound love. God loves the world so much that God chooses to become one of us to show us how to love. God has a deep desire for us to choose to love others.
There are hard things in the world sometimes, and they can make us sad or mad or afraid or lonely. I have a friend named Joseph. He and I lived in the same Jesuit community for several years. Joseph was old, he had cancer, then got COVID, and two days ago he died. I am sad, but I know that Joseph knew Jesus’ love, and in return he loved Jesus very much. Joseph wanted everybody he met to know Jesus’ deep love, too, so even though I am sad, I am also glad because Joseph is with Jesus, who is the gift of love we celebrate at Christmas, and who Joseph always celebrated.
Jesus makes things better not by magic, nor by taking them away, but by loving us as we go through good times and bad. Jesus models for us patience in the face of challenge, compassion toward those who suffer and a desire for justice in all human relations. Jesus helps us to learn to love others. That is the gift.
Merry Christmas.