By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily during the Mass that preceded the annual Christmas gathering with archdiocesan employees at the Pastoral Center in Miami Shores, Dec. 22, 2022.
“From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name.”
There is no pride or vanity in Mary’s prayer. Her hymn of praise which echoes that of Hannah in the first reading is a response to Elizabeth telling her that she is “blessed among women.”
This “Magnificat” of Mary is adopted by the Church and prayed each day in her evening prayers. In Mary’s song, we see a God who loves us as we are but does not leave us as we are. For God, whom Mary describes as Savior, Mighty One, Holy, Merciful, and Giver of good things, is faithful to his promises.
For a world that was turned upside down because of human sin and vice is now about to be turned right side up because of this Child who will be born of Mary: Rulers will be dethroned, the mighty will be humbled, the lowly lifted up and the hungry filled with good things.
Of course, as Christians we live in the “between times,” between the first coming of Jesus in the humility of Bethlehem and his final coming in glory at the end of time. This is the time between the “already” – for Christ has come – and the “not yet” – for Christ will come again.
Nevertheless, in this, the “between times,” we still experienced as Mary did many blessings – although like Mary many of those blessings, in this vale of tears, are “cross-shaped” blessings.
For this reason, our Christmases can be “bittersweet” as was that first Christmas. There was the poverty of the stable, the slaughter of the innocents and the exile into Egypt. Since we still live in what generations of faithful Catholics have called a “vale of tears,” the joy of the season, like any joy experienced on this side of Eternity, is always tempered by the pain of loss and separation.
Even as we celebrate with family and friends, we are reminded of those who are not with us – the loved one who died in the past year, the friend or relative in military service stationed in a far-off land, the family member whom we will not see this Christmas for one reason or another. So, Christmas is always a bittersweet holiday.
Christmas is especially a bittersweet holiday for thousands of immigrant families throughout the United States and in our own parishes. The vast movement of peoples – in Europe, in Africa, but especially on own borders from places where many of us hail from: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and other places in our hemisphere – challenge us: Do we extend a hand of welcome or, like those who refused the Holy Family a place in the inn, do we exhibit indifference, or perhaps even hostility?
On Christmas morning, I will once again celebrate Mass at the Krome Avenue Detention Center – after a two-year absence because of COVID restrictions. For them, and for so many others, their Christmas will be like that first Christmas of the Baby Jesus: for them, as was for Jesus, “there is no room in the inn.”
I mention all this not to throw cold water on our Christmas festivities, but so that we remind ourselves that the true joy we seek, the true joy we celebrate, stems not from the gifts we will receive or that we give. The source of our joy is not in the gifts but in the Gift, the Gift of the Eternal Word made Flesh, the gift of Jesus.
Christmas should not be a flight from or a denial of reality – it is rather the interpretive key to understanding all of reality.
Christmas is not a Hallmark Channel movie; it does not represent an escape from reality. Christmas does not deny the reality of our daily lives – Christmas redeems our reality
Jesus gives meaning and direction to our lives even in our pains and sorrows, and in our trials and disappointments.
The angels proclaimed on a cold winter’s night: “Joy to the World.” The secret of that joy is found not in lives untroubled by adversity but in knowing that God is near and that we are loved by the Lord, for in the Baby Jesus laying in the manger we recognize a sign of the fulfillment of God’s promises to us.
This joy is not diminished but grows when we make our lives gifts that for the love of God we share with others.
We make Mary’s Magnificat our own: for the Almighty has done great things for us and holy is his Name. In Him we too are blessed.
Merry Christmas!
