Christmas

The gift of beautiful feet!
Fr. James McTavish

John 1: 1-18

Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate the fact that “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” Today is a day of great joy and rejoicing. Why? Because this is a celebration of the day which the whole of the world had been waiting for since creation began. It can help us to think of a time of fulfilment in our life. One missionary was telling me about going to World Youth Day in Sydney Australia in 2008. The Verbum Dei community had planned a pre-encounter, a gathering for all the youth of our community. They had planned it for over 2 years organizing so that the youth from around the world could come together, with all of the different activities, the visit of the Pope and when it came they were all so excited. “Now is the time!!! Today is the day!!! What we have been waiting for is finally here!” and man they really enjoyed.

How much more with Christmas! This is the day when God’s great plan, which is a series of universe-changing moments, started its biggest moment… The Word of God that was with God right from the beginning, finally entered the world. GOD HAS COME AND LIVED AMONG US!!! This is amazing, this is mind-blowing. Think about it just for a minute. And so we should celebrate. This is what the 1st reading speaks of - the joy of salvation! And really the image of celebration is very beautiful, let’s listen to what it describes: The beauty of the messenger! The sentinels singing! Not singing or crying out an alarm, but singing for joy! Everyone singing and rejoicing. Everyone in the whole world shall see the salvation that is here. Think of the biggest party you have ever been to, or can imagine, then multiply it by a hundred, a million, a billion and then you can get some idea of the rejoicing on Earth and in Heaven going on at the moment. All of the people, all of the angels, all of creation, both seen and unseen, should be singing.

What exactly is the joy for? Because God is doing something unprecedented. He is speaking to us directly, COMING to us directly, and no longer going through other people and events. This is what the 2nd reading tells us so beautifully “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” God no longer goes to us in a roundabout way, but directly, in the person of Jesus.

But how does He come to us? What does He look like, this long-awaited person who is the Living Word? Does he live up to your expectations? One brother was waiting for the last Harry Potter movie to come out and really was anticipating it so much, waiting so long: “What is it going to be like? Will it tie in all the missing pieces?” and then when it came it was not what he expected… I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it, but because he had such high expectations of what the ending would be like, when the REAL ending came he almost had a hard time recognizing it as the real thing… because it was so different from what he read in the book!

Think about what happened when Jesus came. He was the long-awaited Saviour and the living presence of God amongst us. I am not sure what the people expected (a warrior, a champion etc) but for sure it was not a little baby, in a manger, born to a very poor family and so on. No wonder He was hard to recognize. This is what the gospel tells us; “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” Do you think you would have recognized Jesus for who He really was, this cause for such celebration? Do you even recognize Him now with the benefit of 2000+ years of hindsight? I hope you can say yes. Because the truth is that still many people today DO NOT recognize Him for who He really is. Think of all of your family, friends, people you know, see, work with - how many of them are missing out on joining this fantastic party of salvation?! How beautiful to think that YOU can actually be the one to pass on the good news!

You can now realize who is that messenger spoken of in the 1st reading: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” YOU are the owner of those beautiful feet! Look at your feet, are they beautiful?? Maybe you need to make them more beautiful by telling more people of the Good News!!! Who can you tell about Jesus today? How can you point out the truth so that others can recognize Him? Because He is in the world!!!

So today let us celebrate, and let us rejoice by passing on the Good News, the truth of Jesus. Because in the words of our beloved Pope Benedict XVI at a World Youth Day I was at: “Anyone who has discovered Christ (we have!!!) must lead others to Him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on.” So let us pass on the joy, and first let us recognize and celebrate with Him in the Eucharist here today. And let us also look to Mother Mary for the best example of how to celebrate Jesus’ entry into the world, as she took a big part in it. And she was the first messenger with “beautiful feet” who made the Good News known to all around her. Let us ask for her intercession, and let us follow her example. Amen.