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!