CHRISTMAS< CYCLE-A < SERMON >

The Bottom-Line is Love

When the Second World War came to an end, I was only a boy of 9 years. But I still remember the moment that the news of the end of the war was officially announced. It was night and we children had already been put to bed, but my mother came up to my bedroom and said “we are free!” and she wept. Outside there was the sound of fire-crackers and thousands of people came out. In a wink -- I do not know how people managed -- dancing-floors were laid out in the open air and there were loudspeakers and there was music. And people were singing and dancing, hand in hand, some of them weeping openly without shame and others laughing, mad with joy. And there was a sense of community which later on I never experienced anymore.....because it was peace.....because gone were the days of darkness and anxiety......because the war was over and we were free....

Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought that -- on a much deeper level and on a much, much larger scale -- something similar happened also when Jesus was born. His birth was a tremendous source of joy and peace which people had never experienced before. People felt: with Jesus a new hope and a new light had entered the world. Gone were the days of darkness and confusion, because we were free and liberated by a prince of peace. Angels were singing, when Jesus was born, so we are told; shepherds left the stable glorifying God. Wise men made their way from far-off countries to fall to their knees when they saw the child. And later on again, people joyfully spread the Good News to other places. It went from Palestine to the rest of the Roman Empire, from the Roman Empire to Europe, from Europe to the Americas and to India and to China and to Japan and to Africa, a gigantic movement that swept through the centuries and set people on fire and kept moving on, until at last it has come to us as we are gathered together here in 1992 with millions of other people all over the world to celebrate the birthday of this wonderful child. What an amazing thing! Is there really any other person who managed to create such an enormous excitement in history as Jesus did?...I remember the text of a Christmas-card I received: “Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus is still the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, have not affected the life of men on this earth as much as that one single life of Jesus our Savior.”

Dear brothers and sisters, if that is the case, we may wonder, what exactly is it then in this child, that was able to bring about such a joy and excitement? What is the Good News? What is its message? Well, right now thousands of other preachers may be trying to answer that same question in many ways, but whatever their answer may be, I am sure, their is one bottom-line which will always come out: the Good News of Christ is a message of love. Looking at Jesus, man has finally understood what perhaps secretly, deep down in his heart, he already knew by himself: that the greatest, the deepest, the most everlasting power in the world is love, not money, not physical strength, not worldly power or blind luck or animal instinct, but the great and unspeakable power of love that became manifest -most of all- in Jesus Christ.

I remember a freethinker of the last century who used to say: “If ever I would meet a person who knows all the answers and if I were allowed to ask him a question, it would be: “Is this a friendly universe?” or to put it in other words: “Is the world in which we live a universe with a heart? There is so much suffering we do not understand, so much good that seems to remain totally unrewarded, so much evil that goes on, as it seems, unchecked. Is this a friendly universe? Does it love me? Does it care about me or does it simply follow its mechanical course, totally and absolutely unconcerned with who I am and what I do?” Dear friends, the answer to that question is given to us on Christmas: God loves us. He finds each and everyone so tremendously important, that He did not mind, that He even found it very fitting to strip off all his glory and to come down among us in the humble vulnerable shape of a child. In Jesus God tells us, He keeps telling and spelling it out: no matter who you are, no matter how little you are counted in this world, I love you, I wish to be with you and to stand at your side as your everlasting friend. Once a person feels assured of this love, he has found his deepest source of happiness and peace. As a great catholic thinker once put it: “If anyone would ask me: what is certain in this life?, my answer would be: the love of Christ. Life has taught that nothing else in life can give us that same sort of certainty.  Not people -- not even the best and the dearest ones --; not science, or philosophy or art or any product of human genius. Also not nature, which is so full of profound deception, neither time nor fate. Certain is only what has manifested itself in the child in the crib and the man on the cross: the love of Jesus Christ, this is the beginning and the end of all things.”

Dear brothers and sisters, today, together with millions of others all over the world, we have come together to adore the little Jesus as our Lord and King. Let us praise and thank Him for his wonderful gift of love. But at the same time, let us once again decide to imitate and radiate that love in our own life. The world, as we know, is not in a very good shape and the only way to bring about some change for the better, is not to keep moaning and groaning about the wickedness of the world, but to change the greed and selfishness and pride in our own heart. Once a very old teacher said to his pupils: “When I was a young man, I was a revolutionary. I asked God to give me the grace to change the whole world. When I was middle-aged, I had become more realistic and I asked God for the grace to change at least a few of my friends and my family-members. Now I am old I know I have been wasting my time. There is only one prayer that really matters and I keep praying it every day: “Please God, give me your grace to change myself.” Dear friends, let there be peace on earth and with the help of God’s grace, let it begin with me. May that be our prayer and our new decision today. I wish you a happy Christmas. Amen. (1992)