Fr. Rick’s Two Minute Homily Christmas December 25, 2024 Mass During the Night

Luke 2:1-14  
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122524-Night.cfm   

One of the books I was required to read during my religious studies was the Autobiography of St. Teresa of Lisieux. She longed to be a missionary, but poor health kept her within the convent’s walls. She suffered from Tuberculosis, a long and painful disease at the time.

So, she also offered God all the little works and crosses that came her way for the missions. I love how she found God among the pots and pans and scrubbing the floors.  

It doesn’t seem much in the world’s eyes, but it is the way God chose to come to us. He wants us to be with Him right where we are, in all the joys and sorrows of life.   

The shepherds bearing the cold didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary. Laying Jesus in a feed trough was the best Mary and Joseph could do. If Jesus came to Mary and Joseph storming out of heaven on a fiery chariot, the best they could do would never be enough.   

Mary’s heart had been beating in sync with her Son’s Sacred Heart for nine months. Most likely, the hay, the manger, the cave, the cold, the swaddling clothes, the animals, and the darkness didn’t distract His Mother. She fixed her gaze on Jesus, and nothing else mattered to her.  

Jesus draws us into a relationship with Him by making himself weak and needing the constant care we give to others. We can’t help a hundred people, but we can start with one. Mother Teresa of Calcutta helps us find Jesus. She said, 

“It is easy to love people far away.

It is not always easy to love those close to us.

Giving a cup of rice to relieve hunger is easier than relieving the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home.

Bring love into your home, for this is where our love for each other must start.” 

I invite you, my friends, to bring Bethlehem into your home daily. With Mother Mary, look past all the distractions. Fix your gaze on Jesus in the people next to you in life. 

Learn from the Holy Mass to recognize Jesus under the guise of bread and wine so you can recognize Him under the guise of your neighbor. 

Each Christmas and each day, the Bethlehem event is renewed on the altar during Mass, and God re-issues his gentle invitation to love. Will we accept? Will we let Christ come into our lives anew, where we are, or will we keep him at a distance from the Eucharist and our neighbor?  

 Gospel Challenge:  

Sometimes, it is cold in that Bethlehem cave of our heart, and he hopes to be warmed by our embrace. Let’s listen to our hearts and wait for the answer that gives us lasting peace.  

Pray with me, “Lord Jesus, I surrender myself to you; take care of everything.” Repeat twice. 

Merry Christmas, God’s good people.  

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Love Your Neighbor!   

Fr. Rick Pilger, IC   

www.bscchurch.com