ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

“Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice....”

“Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.”

Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Today we rejoice indeed as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.

The Church welcomes each and every one of you to this celebration in this Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. We gather as a community to acknowledge the coming of the Savior into the world and to welcome Him into our hearts and into our homes.

Our celebration begins before the Crib where we see a representation of the wonderful event that took place two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, when the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus in the midst of the poverty and simplicity of a stable, because there was no room in the inn.

In our Crib we see the different figures and recall the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. We see the animals that are silent witnesses of an event which they could not grasp, but at which their presence would be noted for all time to come.

We see the representation of an angel and of shepherds, and recall how the angel at Bethlehem spoke to the shepherds, saying: “Do not be afraid; for behold I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”

We remember how the shepherds left their fields and went in haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. Speaking of the shepherds, the Gospel tells us that “When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.” Then the Gospel speaks also about passers-by, saying: “All who heard it were amazed at what had been told them by the shepherds.”

Obviously the passers-by understood very little about the identity of the Child. The shepherds knew more, and yet their knowledge too was extremely limited.

Another figure in our Christmas Crib is Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary and the one who was the foster-father of Jesus. Saint Joseph knew much more. He was the silent witness to the real identity of the Child, knowing that he was not the father. He had been informed personally by an angel that the Child had been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, without a human father. Joseph’s role is key for us to understand that the Child is indeed God’s Son, the eternal Word of God, the eternal Son of the eternal Father.

Besides the angel and the shepherds, besides the silent witness of the animals at the crib, besides the faith-filled role of Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster-father of Jesus, we find Mary, His Mother. As we see Mary kneeling in adoration before her Child, who is also her God, the Church invites us to reflect on the sentiments of her heart. For nine months, after the announcement of the angel Gabriel to her that she was to be the Mother of God, she carried the Baby in her womb. She was in constant communion with the Child. Even though His development in the womb was like that of any other child, He was God’s Son, who existed from all eternity, before taking flesh in Mary’s womb.

No one—neither the shepherds, nor the angel, nor Joseph—could fathom the identity of the Child the way Mary His Mother could. She lived those nine months of pregnancy in a communion of love and prayer with Jesus. And when the time came, she brought Him forth with immense joy. Informed by the angel, she had some inkling of his mission, but her knowledge was still incomplete before the mystery of God who became man in her womb. Nine months before the birth, she had expressed her consent to the angel. She would do anything necessary to fulfill worthily her role as Mother of God, and later on as spiritual Mother of the Church.

And so we see that various witnesses gazed upon the newborn Savior, with differing degrees of understanding of His identity. The role of Mary, the Virgin Mother of the Child, exceeds all other witnesses in understanding, in joy and in love.

Even though the Crib cannot depict Him, there was one more person who gazed upon the Child with love beyond all words. It was His Father in heaven: the One to whom Jesus Christ was eternally related as Son, in the communion of the Most Blessed Trinity. It was God the Father who had sent His Son into the world, so that the Son could take on our human nature, and by His life, death and resurrection save us from our sins.

Rightly do we reflect on the immense love and satisfaction of the Father as He gazes from heaven on His beloved Son whom He has now allowed to become the Son of the Virgin Mary. Saint John tells us that it was because God so loved the world that He sent His Son into the world, so that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life. And Saint John adds: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

And so when the Father contemplates His Son lying in a manger, clothed in our human flesh, He is immensely pleased because He knows that His plan is being fulfilled and that our salvation is under way.

The other individuals missing from the Crib are ourselves. But now we have arrived. We are here to contemplate and to adore the Son of God made Man. We have come here in order to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. In his Gospel, Saint John tells us that those who accept Jesus Christ are empowered to become children of God.

Today, dear friends, dear people of God, our role is to accept Jesus Christ our Savior. To accept Jesus Christ is to accept His full identity, to acknowledge Him as true God—the Son of God; to acknowledge Him as true Man – the Son of Mary.

To accept Jesus Christ is to accept His Gospel, His commandments, His way of doing things. It means to accept His Church, the way He founded it, the way He wills it to be. To accept Jesus Christ means to accept His teaching, not because we agree with it or judge it to be acceptable, but because it is His teaching and He is our God.

Finally, dear friends: to accept Jesus Christ in the fullness of His identity as God and Man, as divine and human, is to accept Jesus Christ in others, in all those who share humanity with Him.

By becoming man and taking on our human nature, Jesus has sanctified all humanity and proclaimed for all ages the human dignity of every man, woman and child. Yes, to accept Jesus Christ our Savior and our God is to accept one another in love, in solidarity, in mutual service.

How can we do all this? Jesus Christ who comes to us in the Eucharist is our strength. Adoring and receiving Him personally we are strengthened to reach out and embrace all those who share humanity with Him. This reaching out to others requires generosity, it requires effort, it requires love. But it is an important dimension of our Christmas celebration. This is where the Crib directs us. This is what Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus want us to do. This is part of the angel’s message: “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Amen.