Christmas 2015 “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe last night.” If you’ve been a “regular” at midnight Mass while I’ve been pastor, you’ll know that I always begin with a Christmas song. Yes, I know it’s strange but I wanted to dedicate this homily to my mother who died this past March at 99 and ¾ years. I’m sure I got my love of everything Christmas from her. My love of Christmas music from my dad but everything else, especially decorating for Christmas, came from her. As you know, she loved glitter and sparkles and what better season than Christmas. One of the things my mom taught me was to wrap presents. I still love to wrap: I think I even prefer wrapping to unwrapping. If you’ll indulge me, one story: My mom used to read Hints from Heloise and one year she read how to save time and money in wrapping presents. This helpful hint gave instructions for wrapping just the top of the box and not the whole package. That way all you had to do was lift the top off. No messy wrapping paper. And you could save the box for years to come. She was a recycler before her time. I have to say though that after a few years those boxes with the same wrapping paper looked awfully tired and worn down. Tired and worn down? Doesn’t that describe the world we live in? Since this is my last Christmas here at St Ignatius after 27 years, I read through most of my Christmas homilies and there is always a theme that speaks of this “weary” world. We are all so tired of the bad and sad news that is always there, no matter the year. Sometimes it seems we just go from bad to worse. And yet we sing each year “a weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn”. And we can sing this with gusto because we know deep down that God is with us in Jesus Christ. For the past 27 years I have tried to unwrap the meaning of Christmas for you, even in the midst of the world’s weariness and personal longing and loss. Of all the Christmas midnight homilies I have given here’s the one that I believe unwraps the meaning of Christmas best of all. This is this from 1992: There once was a man who had a beautiful signing voice. He would sing in church. He sang opera and show tunes. His voice was so beautiful and strong but the one time he loved to sing was Christmas midnight. Everyone in the church waited for him to sing “O Holy Night”. Each Christmas midnight his voice would resound throughout the church… the stars are brightly shining, it is the night of the dear savior’s birth. This man who loved to sing had a wife who loved him with her heart and soul. For fifty years they were married and his voice had never faltered. It seemed to get stronger with age. Until at last one day, he could sing no more. He had a stroke that affected his memory and he could no longer sing. His wife would come to see him every day at the nursing home and as Christmas was coming, she would play a tape of him singing, “O Holy Night”, “Silent night” and all his favorites. She would hold his hand and try to help him remember the song. She thought that if he could hear his own voice, he would sing again. But he would only stare into space, not recognizing his beloved, not hearing his own voice. That man was my father. Now in the room with my father was another old man. He had lost his wife a number of years ago and had lost his hope and his heart. He was bitter, angry and alone. He had come to this room on Christmas Eve, himself a victim of a stroke that paralyzed him but not his mind, nor his voice. That Christmas Eve, my mother came into the room as she always did and held my father’s hand and played again the songs my father would sing… “O Holy Night… Silent night.” The man fell asleep unable to resist the lullaby of “Silent Night”. And in his sleep, as he dreamed he saw his beloved. He saw them together in their home… a Christmas holiday when his joy was so overflowing. Suddenly he awoke from sleep and the room was filled with such brilliant light. Barely able to see he looked over to the bed beside him. The man and woman were bathed in light… almost angelic. He could see only the radiance on the face of the man and the woman… it was the radiance of eternal love, incarnate love that he saw. It was the radiant beams from heaven so near on the faces of two people who had lived in love. And he knew again the meaning of this Holy Night. He knew something of the awesome mystery of love itself… of love in human flesh and blood and suddenly he knew again that he had a heart and he had a hope and he had a voice to sing with that he never knew he had. And he sang “O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.” Human love, Divine love, the Christmas gift! And that’s a wrap!