December 25, 2019
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily at the Christmas Eve Family Mass on December 24, 2018, in the gymnasium of St. Austin Catholic School in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the evening’s readings: Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 96; and Luke 2:1-14.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, and merry Christmas! Welcome especially to all those people who aren’t with us on a regular basis, including those visiting from out of town – we’re very glad that you’re here! As we celebrate the birth of our Savior in a most unexpected place, perhaps it’s appropriate for our celebration to be in this most unexpected place!
Tonight, we celebrate that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that the world might be saved through him. For this, we rejoice!
I’d like to invite the children forward, since I preaching primarily to them tonight!
Why is Christmas so important for us?
[Take lots of answers. Then:] I think one of the most important things about Christmas is that God became a little baby to teach us that God understands what it’s like to be a child, to have parents, to go to school, because God experienced all those things in Jesus. Christmas inspires each of us to try harder to live good and holy lives. From the Bible, we know that Jesus could get annoyed with his parents, with his other relatives, with his neighbors, and with his friends, like all of us, but he ALWAYS chose the right thing to do. That means that we can choose the right thing to do, too. We might not always get it perfectly right, but we should keep trying to be good as best we can.
Do any of you know the name of the person in the world who leads the whole Church?
That’s right! Pope Francis! For the past seven years, Pope Francis has instructed all of us to tell the story of Jesus to people who don’t already know it.
On the first Christmas, Mary, Joseph, and the angels already knew something about the story of Jesus. But there are two groups of people at the first Christmas who didn’t know as much. Who were the first group to be told that Jesus was born?
That’s right! Shepherds! In the time of Jesus, being a shepherd was a really hard job. Sheep are smelly. Being a shepherd can be a lonely job, because you have to go to out-of-the-way places where you can find fresh grass for the sheep to eat. Also, you don’t get to take breaks: you have to be constantly on the watch, even when you’re tired, when you’re hungry, and when the weather is bad. The only people who became shepherds in Jesus’ day were people who couldn’t find better jobs.
So why do you think the angels told the shepherds first about Jesus being born?
[Take some answers. Then:] Being a shepherd was a hard job, and the angels (and God) probably thought they could really hear the good news. Their lives were hard, and it might have been hard to keep doing the right thing.
If Pope Francis says we’re supposed to tell the story of Christmas to all people, who are the kind of people in our world today who might be similar to shepherds in the time of Jesus?
[Take some answers. If necessary:] People who work the night shift. Classmates at school who don’t have a lot of friends. People who travel a lot for work. People who can’t find a job. People who don’t have a home. Parents who work very far away from their children.
There were a second group of people who came to see the baby Jesus, from far away. Who were they?
Sometimes we call them “the three kings” or “the wise men.” Probably a better word for them would be “astrologers” – people who look for messages in the alignment of the stars in the sky. When the astrologers – or kings, or wise men – came out of the desert to find Jesus, they first went to the wrong place. They went to the palace in Jerusalem, thinking that the new king would obviously be born there. But eventually, they found Jesus about 8 miles away in a stable.
If Pope Francis says we’re supposed to tell the story of Christmas to all people, who are the kind of people in our world today who might be similar to the astrologers – or kings, or wise men – in the time of Jesus?
[Take some answers. Then:] People who live in other parts of the world. People who speak other languages than we do. People who don’t know the story of Jesus. People who are extremely busy or have to make lots of important decisions.
How can we share the message of Jesus with these various people?
[Take some answers. Then:] Those are great ideas! But let’s remember that one of the best ways to proclaim the story of Jesus is how we live our lives – by being kind, by caring for people who are less fortunate. Just to make sure that we all remember that we’re supposed to share the message, Dr. Andrea and I would like to teach you a song:
Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere!
Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!
(1x priest alone, 1x with children and women)Priest alone:
The shepherds and the wise men who journeyed from afar,
They heard the angels singing beneath the Beth’lem star.Men:
Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere!
Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!Priest alone:
O come let us adore him, his love will draw us near.
The path is straight and narrow; let’s keep the message clear!Everyone:
Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere!
Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!
Instead of listening to Fr. Rich and the people of St. Austin’s sing, here’s a very jazzy version by Pentatonix. It really kicks up around 0:54 into the clip!