Christmas: Being Loved, Just As We Are
by Paulist Fr. Rich Andre
December 25, 2019

Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on Christmas Eve on December 24, 2019 at St. Austin Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; and Luke 2:1-14.

Welcome, welcome!  Welcome to our regular parishioners, welcome to those who are back in town for the holidays, welcome to those traveling, and an especially warm welcome to those who have joined us at the request of family members.  You all help make this celebration all that it is meant to be, as evidenced by those who gathered in the stable during the first Christmas – humble Jewish shepherds and magnificent Persian astrologers.  Once again, welcome!

But of course, tonight, we welcome someone else into our presence.  Tonight, we celebrate that God has come among us.  This is the same God who walked with us in the cool of evening in the garden of Eden, the God born in a stable in the Middle East, the God present tonight in this very room, the God who will never leave us alone.  Let us take a moment to celebrate that!

I heard this story sixth-hand, so in telling it to you, you’ll be hearing it seventh-hand: Michael Leach and Doris Goodnough edited a devotional for Orbis Books, and they included an account written by Jesuit preacher Walter Burghardt. Burghardt cited Miriam Wright Edelman, who told of the year that the great preacher William Sloane Coffin, Jr. was scheduled to give the Christmas Eve sermon at Riverside Church in New York City. Before his sermon, the children of the church performed the annual Christmas pageant. The community had chosen a boy with special needs to play the innkeeper. He delivered his one and only line perfectly: “There’s no room at the inn.” But as the children playing Mary and Joseph began to walk away dejectly, the boy suddenly shouted out to them, “Wait! You can stay at my house!” Knowing that he could not outdo what had just happened, William Sloane Coffin, Jr. approached the pulpit without his notes, and simply said, “Amen.” Miriam Wright Edelman called it, “the greatest sermon Bill Coffin never preached.”

In Knoxville, TN, they still tell the story of the year the Christmas pageant went a little awry at St. John XXIII Parish. One little boy was so excited that he was going to play a king. Near the end of the pageant, when he suddenly realized that the character he was playing – King Herod – wasn’t supposed to go worship the baby Jesus, he got very upset. So, that year, King Herod went to the manger, too!

Children understand the essence of Christmas a lot better than many adults. Yes, there will surely be plenty of temper tantrums, messes, sugar rushes, and squabbles over the holidays this year, but most 5-year-olds who have been raised in loving families know, deep down inside, that they are loved, just as they are. Loved by their parents. Loved by themselves. Loved by God.

From hearing confessions for the last seven-and-a-half years, I get the impression that by the time we reach the age of thirteen, almost none of us still believe that we are loved just as we are. We think that our parents are clueless and inept. We are plagued by low self-esteem. We believe that God will only love us if we are absolutely perfect.

I often say that the task of Christian discipleship after the age of thirteen is to gradually find our way back to the spirituality we had when we were five. As Isaiah foretold, the calf and the young lion will both be guided by a little child. Jesus himself said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” 

In some ways, the miracle of Christmas isn’t that God was born to us as a vulnerable child. The true miracle is that when that child grew up, he knew that, deep down inside, he was loved by his heavenly Father, just as he was. And he proclaimed that each of us are loved by our heavenly Father, just as we are.

God did not wait for the world to be perfect before he sent his Son to be born among us. God did not wait for us to be perfect before he planted the Holy Spirit deep within us. We do not have to be perfect before we can grow closer to Jesus Christ. As we say at every Mass before receiving Christ in the Eucharist, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” (Paulist Fr. Don Andrie says, “I imagine God up in heaven, shouting, ‘Word! Word! Word!’”)

On Sunday, St. Austin Parish celebrated the 200th birthday of the founder of the Paulists Fathers, Servant of God Isaac Hecker. Hecker once wrote, “If Christ is to be to us a savior, we must find him here, now, and where we are, in this age of ours also; otherwise he is no Christ, no Savior, no Immanuel, no ‘God with us.’”1

Perhaps you’re struggling to find Christ here, now, and where you are. Perhaps, despite Isaiah’s prophecy, you feel that you’re still walking in darkness, dwelling in the land of gloom, unable to see the great light. We at St. Austin would be happy to journey with you. Just reach out to any of us on the pastoral staff – not just Fr. Chuck or me, but also Deacon Billy, Deacon Dan, Rachel, Kristen, Andrea, or Rudy – and we’d be glad to brainstorm with you about how to nurture a personal, intimate relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Maybe we can help you find a more satisfying way to pray. Perhaps we can connect you with one of our small Christian communities. Maybe there’s a ministry that will help you see the face of Jesus in others. Perhaps we can connect you with one of the certified spiritual directors in our parish.

Each of us is loved by God, just as we are. And even if you’re not a regular church-goer, you are always welcome at St. Austin, just as you are. If there’s no room at another inn, you can always worship the newborn king with us. And to conclude with the sermon that the great William Sloan Coffin, Jr. never preached, let us together say: Amen!

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