(Christmas 2021: This homily was given on December 25, 2021 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 96:1-13; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Christmas 2021]
In his latest book, “Life is Messy,” Catholic author Matthew Kelly tells the following story:
Many years ago, I was on my way home from work and a friend came to mind. It occurred to me that I hadn’t heard from him for a few days, and I knew he had been having a tough time. I have no idea what led me to do so, but I drove to his place on the other side of town to visit him.
When I opened the door, he looked horrible. The place was dark and there was trash everywhere. We opened the curtains to let some light in, and a few windows to get some fresh air circulating. I suggested he shave and take a shower, while I ordered a pizza and tidied up a bit. He resisted for a moment, but I said, “Come on, you’ll feel so much better, and when you’re done the pizza will be here.” We sat on his front porch eating pizza and telling stories, and when we were done, I drove home.
The next day I opened my mailbox to find this handwritten note from him: “I was going to kill myself last night, but then you stopped by just to say hello, and I thought to myself somebody does care. So, thank you.”
I read that story the other day and the thought occurred to
me, “Wow, that’s a really good Christmas story.” Now I know there’s no mention of Christmas
there, and for all we know this event might have taken place on a sunny day in mid-July. But the message of Christmas—and the
importance and power of the Christmas event—are all there.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
Matthew Kelly’s friend found himself in a terrible situation—a
situation of suffering and pain that he couldn’t get out of on his own. And he knew it. That’s the reason he was planning to take his
own life. He had lost all hope that his
life would ever improve. He needed
someone else—a savior of sorts (savior with a small s). In other words, he needed someone outside of
the situation who could help him to do what he could not do for himself. Thank God Matthew Kelly responded to the
promptings of the Holy Spirit that day, went to his friend’s home and fulfilled
that role for his friend—literally saving the man’s life in the process!
Christmas is about a God who loves us so much that was willing
to step down from his heavenly throne, take on a human nature, be born in a
stable, live among us for 33 years, and then die a horrible death. He was willing to do all those things in
order to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. You see, just like Matthew Kelly’s friend,
we’re all in a situation that we cannot get out of on our own (whether we
realize it or not). We’re all in a
situation of sin. That’s because we’re
all sinners. We sin every day of our
lives. Consequently we’re all in need of
reconciliation with God. We’re in need
of reconciliation with the Lord both for the bad things we do and for the good
things we fail to do.
The problem is that we can’t save ourselves; we can’t be our
own saviors! We cannot reconcile
ourselves to God, no matter how hard we try; no matter how good we are; no
matter how good we think we are. That’s
because God is infinitely holy, whereas we are finite, imperfect human persons
whose actions have only a finite, limited value. Only a divine Person, whose
actions are INFINITELY EFFECTIVE, could bring human beings forgiveness for
their sins and true reconciliation with a God who is infinitely holy.
Today we celebrate the birth of that divine Person—Jesus
Christ—who was born into this world 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, and who died
on a cross for our sins 33 years later in Jerusalem.
Let me sum it up in this way:
By what he did, Matthew Kelly saved his friend from physical
death, and that was a great thing. We
should praise God for that.
But by his saving work, our Lord Jesus Christ has made it
possible for us to be saved from the eternal death of hell—and that is a far,
far better thing.
But for Jesus to save us, we have to open our hearts to him
and allow him to change our lives.
Notice that Matthew Kelly’s friend was saved only because he opened his
heart to his savior’s love and responded positively to his savior’s
message. We see that clearly in the
letter he left in his savior Matthew’s mailbox when he said to his friend, “I
was going to kill myself last night, but then you stopped by just to say hello,
and I thought to myself somebody does care. So, thank you.”
“Somebody does care.”
This man finally realized that there was at least one person out there
in the big, bad world who loved him. And
the experience of that love—the love of a true friend—changed his life.
In fact, I’m happy to be able to tell you that this man, who
once contemplated killing himself, has gone on to become a doctor. And he he’s now blessed to have (as Matthew
Kelly says in his book), “a wife and three children, a mortgage and a dog.”
The good news, my brothers and sisters, is that Jesus Christ
loves us much, much more than Matthew Kelly loves his friend (as great as that
love might be). Jesus’s love is infinite!
But we have to respond to that love personally if we want him to save us from
eternal death (as Matthew Kelly’s friend needed to respond to Matthew’s love to
escape his despair). In other words, we
have to open our hearts to the love of our Savior Jesus Christ (Savior there
has a capital S), and we have to strive to live his gospel message every day.
And the fact of the matter is we can all do this, regardless
of what our past has been like. For Catholics
who’ve fallen away and stopped practicing their faith, it’s simply a matter of
making a good confession, inviting the Lord into your heart, getting back to
Mass every week, and beginning a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that
nourished by the Bible and the sacraments.
For those who have been faithful in the past it’s a matter of renewing
your commitment to Jesus and his Church in your heart.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said it best when he wrote: “It was
wonderful, [it was] marvelous for God to come to this earth, but the marvel
that makes us happy is our coming to him.”
It’s my prayer that we will all come to Jesus this Christmas—and
stay with him.
So that he can save us.
