Reflection for Christmas Celebration

 Today we celebrate Jesus’ coming to share our lives with us. God’s desire to b with us is so deep that God enters our world and chooses to experience all that  we experience. When we realize what a gift thi is, w want to cry with Isaiah , ” how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet  of those who bring glad tidings.” Our joy today knows no bounds. God wants to share our life with us!
        In entering our world, Jesus comes to enlighten our darkness. If during Advent we confronted the darkness within us and within our world, then we know our need for the light, a light that shines in darkness and is not overcome by it. When we look at all the pain, strug, and sorrow inn our world, we are tempted to throw our hands up and say, ” what in the use?” With Jesus by our side, we will not be overcome by the darkness.
     Jesus Exeter into the world as a tiny, helpless infant totally dependent upon his parents for all his basis needs. Imagine ourselves at the crib in Bethlehem, and maybe even asking Mary if we could  hold the Infant Jesus –  with such love and tenderness we would have held him. And, yet, every child is a chi of God who can call Jesus  his brother and Mary his mother. With that same love and tenderness we must welcome each child in our world. We are all called to be children of God and brothers and sisters to one another.
     Jesus came to teach us a way of life in which people relate to each other as friends, sharing with and caring for each other. It is a way of life in which, as Jesus said, people  do not exploit each other, or claim power and wealth at each other’s expense, or even cling to good things when others lack them. And when Jesus taught us to pray to our Father, he taught us to ask that God’s kingdom come, that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
       Christmas reminds us to keep in touch with the meaning of the revelation of Jesus, and not allow it to be watered down. It must make an impact on our lives. The reign of God, which Jesus proclaimed and lived and called others to live, was both an immediate reality  and a promise. If we could fully open ourselves to God’s action, then God would be free in us to transform All things beyond our wildest dreams.
       The coming of the reign of God for which all disciples hope and work is the recovery of a world of justice and peace, an earth no longer oppressed by the evil forces of greed and power. Sometimes the seems like an impossible dream , and the temptation is strong to dismiss it as just that. But the Word has become flesh and made his dwelling among us. With Jesus, the Light, by our side, we will not be overcome by darkness.
    Tonight, in our home, our parish, and our community, may the glorious sights and sounds, and light of this Christmas help us to accept one another and to celebrate in one another the grace of God present in our humanity. God bless you and your family and have a blessed Christmas!
  Fr. Dominic
  Your brother in Christ