Christmas Vigil Mass

Christmas 2007 Vigil Mass
My Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Christmas is finally here. All four weeks of Advent we have been waiting and praying for the coming blessings of Christmas. And now Christmas is here.
In Africa, a tale is told of a boy called Amazu, who was always very inquisitive. One day he asked, “What language does God speak?” But no one could answer him. He traveled all over his country questioning everyone but could not get a satisfactory answer. Eventually he set out for distant lands on his quest. For a long time he had no success. At length, he came one night to a village called Bethlehem, and as there was no room in the local inn, he went outside the village in search of shelter for the night. At last he came to a cave and found that a couple and a child also occupied it. He was about to turn away when the young mother spoke, “Welcome Amazu, we’ve been waiting for you.” The boy amazed that the woman knew his name, was even more amazed when she went on to say, “For a long time you have been searching the world over to find out what language God speaks. Well, now your journey is over. Tonight you can see with your own eyes the language God speaks. He speaks the language of love.
Today the angels are bringing us the good news of great joy for all the people, for to us is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This good news of great joy is for all the people of God. As people of God we have a claim to the joy and the peace that the birth of Christ brings to the world. But how do I personally enter into this "great joy" of Christmas? Christmas rings out "joy to the world," yes, but how do I make this joy my own? This is an important question, for, even though God has declared joy to the whole world, there are still many among us who do not flow in this joy, many among us who do not know how to claim this joy and make it their own personally.
Some of you may remember or heard about the incident that happened about a month before Christmas in 1965, a power failure of New York City’s Consolidated Edison blacked out the entire city of New York. The disaster occurred at just about the height of the evening winter rush hour, when darkness was beginning to descend upon the city. Thousands of commuters were caught in tunnels and trains. Thousands were trapped in high rises. Thousands were trapped in crowded elevators between floors of tall buildings.
What amazed the citizens of New York, especially the police of the City, was the response of the people to the blackout. A few grew angry, and a few took advantage of the situation. But by large, the people responded with amazing concern.
They helped one another. They worked together to assist the elderly in a special way. You could hear singing on commuter trains and in darkened corridors of skyscrapers. What was even more amazing was that crime was almost nonexistent during this period.
The blackout and the nearness to Christmas helped the people discover a dimension in themselves that they never knew they had.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, Christmas is an invitation for each one of us to discover in ourselves a dimension of goodness, which we call Jesus Christ. It’s an invitation to let that dimension shine forth into the darkness of today’s world.
If Jesus is to be born anew into our modern world, it must be through us. We must let the light of the World shine through us first, if we are to become a light to our world.
So is the good news of great joy that God showers on the world at Christmas. We still need to do something, make a little effort, before we can personally experience this joy in our lives, in our families, and in our world.
How do we do that? Well, that is rather easy to explain but pretty hard to practice, so I'll explain. Look at the word JOY. You see that it is made up of three letters: first J, then O, and lastly Y. J stands for Jesus, O for Others, and Y for You. Joy therefore is: Jesus, Others, before You. To know joy in our lives we need to place Jesus first in everything. Secondly, we need to try to please others before trying to please yourself. That is the recipe for joy. That is how we can convert the Christmas "joy to the world" into a personal "joy in my life" now and always.
Joseph lived not for himself but for Jesus and Mary. He was happy because he put Others before him.
Santa's most popular reindeer by far is Rudolf, Rudolf, the red-nosed reindeer. Here is his story as told in music by Johnny Marks: Rudolf, the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose. And if you ever saw him, you would even say it glows. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolf play in any reindeer games. Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say: "Rudolf with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?" Then all the reindeer loved him as they shouted out with glee: "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history!" The story of Rudolf, is the story of salvation. It is our story both as individuals and as the human family. In our own case it is not Santa who saves us but the Child Jesus.
English speaking peoples say Merry Christmas. The Spanish say Feliz Navidad. Filipinos say Maligayamg Pasko. In Korea, people say Sung Tan Chuk Ha. The French say Joyeux Noel and the Portuguese say Boas Festas. The German speaking people will say Freue Weinachten. Hindi speaking people say Christu-Gayanthi Mubarak and Malayalam speaking people will say Christumas asamsakal. Whatever language we may speak as we contemplate the Christ child lying in the manger of Bethlehem, God speaks only one language and that language is the language of love.
“Yes, God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through Him the world might be saved” (John 3: 16-17).
Merry Christmas to you