It’s Christmas Eve! For some of us, it may be Christmas Eve night and we’ve already finished that last minute shopping, we’ve had our family dinners, attended Vigil Mass, and we’re settling into a nice evening with our loved ones. We’re getting our kids ready for bed and taking part in those time-honored traditions that have been passed down over the generations.
For others, our day is just beginning. We have a busy day planned, finding that last minute gift, preparing for that family meal, going to Vigil Mass, and then eventually setting all our cares and worries aside to simply enjoy our family traditions and each other. For some of us, it’s a White Christmas with snow falling, and for others, it’s 80 degrees and sunny. We all have our traditions, and we all have our reality, what we’ve come to expect Christmas to be – and we are at home.
Whether it be at home with our families, at home where we grew up, at home with our friends, or perhaps even traveling in a foreign land, we are all at home. For some of us, it may not feel like it. Some of us may be soldiers living in a distant land, away from our families. Some of us may have to work on Christmas Eve to make ends meet. But regardless of where we are, tonight we are at home because through the Nativity of the Lord, God delivered us a home where we could always take refuge, no matter the situation we find ourselves in.
Christmas is about coming home to be with family, especially if we don’t get to visit as often. But more importantly it’s about coming home to Christ, because, lets face it – throughout the year, we sometimes just don’t visit Him as often. Home is where the heart is, and if our hearts are in Christ, then we are always home. This is a gift of Christmas.
And as a matter of fact, the readings for today, all of them, are about home – the home God plans to establish for us and our ages long quest and journey for it. There are actually a number of readings to choose from today. And while I’m going to focus on the readings for the Vigil Mass, I’d like to start with a passage from the daily reading from Samuel. In 2 Samuel, King David desires to build God a house. He thinks it is bad that he lives in a great home made of cedar, and that the Ark of God dwells in a tent. But God then says something that really transcends the rest of the readings for today:
“The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his Kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”
God doesn’t need David to build a house for Him. God is going to build a house for him and his descendants – all of us! But what does that mean? How is God going to build us a house? Surely he’s not going to physically build us a house. God is going to send Himself, His son, to us, who will shelter us from all that is bad in this world. God is going to protect us from the storm. God was foreshadowing the events to come. He was hinting about the first Christmas to occur hundreds of years later, how His home and our home would finally come to be – how they would come together.
But back in the world we live in today, what does this mean that our home is in Jesus Christ? How can I say that someone who is away from their family on Christmas Eve through work or some other means, can still feel at home in Christ? What does it mean to feel at home in Jesus? It’s all about grace and hope.
Feeling at home in Jesus is the grace we feel when amidst all of our problems, discomforts, or anything else we may be confronted with. It’s the grace we feel that, even though we may be in a tough situation, there’s warmth around us and we feel we’re not alone. Maybe you’re working on Christmas Eve, or stuck in an airport, or sick in the hospital, but it’s at those times where Christ is with us through the people we’re around – maybe a co-worker, or a fellow traveler, or maybe a nurse or another patient in the hospital who make these times a little more comfortable.
And it’s the hope that life will get better. No matter our respective situations this Christmas Eve, we all have concerns and problems that we are dealing with. Some of us may have family tension and anxiety that make itself more known this time of year, especially when families get together this night. But being at home in Christ is the hope that He will help us persevere through these times with His grace.
It’s the same hope and grace that finally gets the Israelites to the Promised Land, and that transcended through the line of David, from Abraham all the way on down to Joseph. All of Israel hoped for a Messiah to save them, and it’s this same hope and grace that delivered Him to Mary and to Joseph this night, a little over 2000 years ago.
Coming home to Christmas, means coming to our home in Christ. It’s why families travel across countries to be together, because Christ is found in the family. And it’s why we all have extravagant Christmas Masses because we celebrate “Christ’s Mass” with the Church all over the world.
We each come from different backgrounds, cultures, economic levels and various other situations. Some of us live in countries where we have abundant freedoms and resources and can do whatever we like, while others live in areas where it may not be so popular to celebrate Christmas and to be Catholic, or places where certain freedoms may be limited.
We each have our homes, but we also, as Christians, and especially as Catholics have one true home. We all come together, from the farthest reaches of the Earth, this very night to celebrate the home that God established for us regardless of what we have happening in our own lives. All of us together have a home in Christ, and in our faith. We are united in our faith and in the worldwide Church. We are united in prayer. This is the home God established for us through the birth of Jesus.
So, no matter where you are at this Christmas Eve, no matter what house you are in, know that you are at home in Christ.
Home is where the heart is.
And I pray we find our hearts with Christ this day, no matter our situation, and come home to Him with open arms.
Merry Christmas!
