Christmas Day, Nativity of the Lord, December 25, 2021 – Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14

My goodness, there are more people at this Mass than we’ve had in an entire weekend since Covid began. Merry Christmas to all of you.

Now, a question for you. Show of hands. How many of you have ever held a baby? Almost everybody.
So I jotted down a few of the things you might have said, or at least thought, when you held that baby. “You came from me?” “I will always love and protect you.” “I made you?” “This was not in my plans.” “This changes everything.” “Will my parents still love me?” “He’s so tiny.” “She’s so little.” “I can’t wait until you’re old enough for me to play with you.” “Oof, kid, you need a diaper change.” “You are so beautiful.” “What will you grow up to be?” I’m sure almost everybody here has said or thought one or more of those things.

The entire Christmas gospel is about going and seeing. And there is nothing, from the angel’s first message to Mary until the end of the Christmas gospel, there is nothing that would have told Mary and Joseph that this little baby was truly divine. In their own mindset, because they were faithful Jews, they would have clung fiercely to the notion of there being only one God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is Lord alone, and him only shall you serve.” The most that Joseph, Mary, the shepherds – the most they could have divined from this experience is that this child was extra, extra special.

And so, the very same kinds of things that you thought when you held that baby, there the kinds of things that Mary and Joseph were thinking as they spent that first night with their child. If we break them down, these are the kinds of things they come out being. It is an awe-inspiring experience. An intrusive experience. A disturbing experience. A frightening experience. A helpless and appealing experience. A game-changing experience. A mysterious experience. An experience filled with possibility.

We are right in the middle of the mystery of redemption. God begins to heal the wound of humanity from the very first moment of our creation. But the beginning of the end of the process, what we call an incarnation, that’s what we celebrate tonight, the Incarnation. That God began the final phase of the process by becoming not simply a human being, but a baby. A baby. All the things you have thought about the babies you have held are the things that God has become.

So, the next time that you hold a baby, what the popular song says to Mary is true. “Mary, did you know that, when you kiss your little boy, you kiss the face of God?” For just a moment, as you hold that baby, remind yourself that this was the first face of God. And let yourself be overwhelmed, in all the different ways that I just described. Let yourself be overwhelmed with the mystery of redemption.