A Portion of Fr. Joseph’s Christmas 2022 Homily
My Dear Brothers and Sisters
On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We celebrated the greatest gift God ever gave us and all humanity His precious son, Baby Jesus, our Lord and Savior. With Christians around the world, we celebrated the reason for the season – The birth of Jesus born in the stable in Bethlehem. We listened to the Holy Scripture, especially the Gospel about what happened over two thousand years ago.
In Christmas time to continue to reflect about the mystery of God’s incarnation. It is a remarkable story that God’s Word became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Mother Mary through the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit and the message of the Angel Gabriel. The truth is that the Spirit of the Lord lives in us.
Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, because she was humble and holy. With her trust, she accepted that noble role of the Mother of the Baby Jesus, our Lord and King. She is the Spiritual Mother of all of us. She accepted that special role with the remarkable and great support of St. Joseph the earthly guardian of Jesus, person of holiness. He didn’t say much in the Gospel but he did a lot. He followed the message of the angels, he listened to Mary and fulfilled God’s will in his life.
The Christmas message reminds us to suppress our selfishness and to think about others. We look for the opportunities to give rather than to receive. This is the truth, that happiness comes from serving others.
Wouldn’t it be that great that all mankind were made up of kind women and warmhearted men? The mystery of humanity is that we have more extreme thinking but shorter tempers, bigger ambitions but smaller families, larger houses but more broken homes. We have multiplied our possessions but diminished our values. We buy more but enjoy less. We have added years to life but not life to years. We have become more educated but lack common sense.
If we take the Christmas message into our hearts, we can change it. We need to be willing to accept the values which Jesus brought to earth for us. Jesus wants us to follow his example. How can we do so? Simply by doing good deeds in our life. He wants us to enrich others by serving others in His name. We are called to love and worship our God at least on Sundays, love our neighbors as ourselves, love tenderly and walk humbly with God.
Children and everyone are called to fulfill our daily tasks to the best of our ability, honestly and conscientiously. Why is it so important? Simply because the church members are the foundation of our society……
A Christmas Prayer
Come, Lord Jesus, Prince of peace and Beloved Savior; come into our hearts this Christmas and fill us with Your gifts of love and joy. With Mary and Joseph, we rejoice and thank God for You. With the angels and saints in heaven we sing, “Glory to God in the highest.” With the Magi and the shepherds, we bow before You with hearts full of wonder. Help us to follow You faithfully and to share the good news of Your coming with everyone we meet, this Christmas season and always. Amen.
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