Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) 2018

Published: December 25, 2018

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily during the Midnight Mass at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018.

Bishop Taylor

At Midnight Mass 12 years ago, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a powerful homily that I would like to quote at length because it goes to the heart of the meaning of Christmas. His reflection centers on the fact that God's sign of salvation is a baby:

"To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11-12).

Pope Benedict writes: "Nothing miraculous, nothing extraordinary, nothing magnificent is given to the shepherds as a sign. All they will see is a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, one who, like all children, needs a mother's care; a child born in a stable, who therefore lies not in a cradle but in a manger. God's sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty."

"Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfills the promise of the Prophet Isaiah: 'For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder.' Exactly the same sign has been given to us. We too are invited by the angel of God, through the message of the Gospel, to set out in our hearts to see the child lying in the manger."

He continues: "God's sign is simplicity. God's sign is the baby. God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby — defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness."

"He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will — we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him and love him."

When the pope says that "exactly the same sign has been given to us," he invites us to draw on our own experience of babies because their defenselessness can teach us about God's will for us.

You parents surely remember how much you were changed by the birth of your first child. That baby captured your heart and began to reign in your home, completely rearranging your schedule and your priorities, your sense of what is important ... and so also to an even greater degree should the baby Jesus capture our hearts and reign in us, rearranging our priorities to the point that doing his will becomes the determining factor in everything we do.

Think back to those first months with your new baby. Isn't it true that God used your baby to increase greatly your capacity for unconditional — albeit sleep-deprived — love?

Well so also should God's self-emptying humility in coming to us as a helpless baby capture our hearts and motivate us to do all in our power to protect and provide for those who are needy in our world today ... every one of which is a living reflection of the defenseless baby born in Bethlehem 2018 years ago.

God's sign of salvation is a baby, but for that salvation to become a reality, we must respond like Mary and Joseph, who cherished their Son from the first moment of conception and did all in their power to protect and provide for him.

When we look into the face of a baby, we see a higher law that renders invalid all human laws to the contrary, be it laws allowing the killing of babies — like Herod who killed the baby boys of Bethlehem — or laws that impede the exercise of human rights, including the God-given right to immigrate when necessary to protect and provide for one's family — like when the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt as refugees. The killing of babies in the womb and closed borders remain very current issues today! 

God's sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. God made himself small in part to inspire us to open our hearts to welcome him also in those who — like that baby born 2,000 years ago — are poor and defenseless in our world today.