Homily – Christmas Eve – 2025

I remember quite vividly the foyer of our house in Wausau, a place now 50 years in the past. And I could tell you with some detail where the tree would be and what we would do on Christmas Eve. First supper, and then the fastest post meal cleanup of the year followed by the opening of presents. On days like today those kinds of memories come flooding back, a combination of joy and melancholy flavored with the realization of the too quickly passing years.

There are some disadvantages about growing older. You realize there’s more behind than ahead and the unrecoverable parts of your past can come roaring back, things you wish you could’ve or should’ve been or done or said. High school classmates are increasingly found in the obituaries and the face in the mirror starts looking like those old people you knew when you were a kid.

And the body starts acting up in ways that are simultaneously novel, disappointing, and sometimes just plain funny. I remember doing things back then that would probably give me a heart attack now and every so often I discover the existence of new parts and places in this mortal coil only when they start to act up and I have to laugh because its better than crying.

There are some significant advantages, though, that should also be mentioned.

You learn stuff along the way. The combination of growing intelligence and hard experience over the years really does provide a wisdom and time, if properly applied, can grind the hard edges from your life and personality. Age really can make a difference both in wine and in people if you let it do its work and there’s reason older folks often forsake the intensity of earlier days for a kind of patience and resolve with the world that only time seems able to create. Things new and frightening to youth seem different from the perspective of passing years and the experiences of making it through so many moments when the world tried its best to make you angry, frustrated, or frightened.

And, even as I still struggle, how I wish I had the faith I have now when I was just a kid!

The best part of being older is that, if you take an honest look at it, you can as a person of Christian faith see and recall all the various times of your life when our Lord has truly been Imanuel, God with us. Beyond any regrets from the past, you can also see how God has sustained, nurtured, protected, and cared for you. It’s not that you didn’t have nicks or dings or struggles or sins but rather that God in His mercy never let you out of His sight and helped you along even when you weren’t necessarily interested in Him.

And from my position as a person of 65 Christmases and counting I want to remind you of a great truth that comes to us every year this season rolls around.

God saw the world and God everyone in it, including us, including me, from before time with a love that defies description and a grace beyond imagination. Every flaw in us and me and in the world was eternally open to Him. No secrets were hidden. Every darkness was exposed to light before God said “Let there be light…” at the dawn of existence. All the troubles of the present world were known to the One who sees all eternity in a single glance.

And when the time was right God chose not to exact punishment or inflict condemnation for all of it but rather to come to our rescue. All of our regrets and wishes and mistakes and struggles were given the option of solace. Every wrong inflicted on us us and everywhere we trespassed on others was not for His revenge but rather for forgiveness if we so chose to give and receive it. All of our untold secrets and bitter tears in the night, the places where we are most painful to the touch, can be soothed.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
And because of this we are not alone. We do not have to be given over to fear or regret or the pain of the world even if it reaches out to touch us or calls us to remembrance of those things that were but have been washed away in the sea of His grace. God came to us so long ago but, in truth, He has in one way or another never left. And while we’re not immune from the night of this world those who can see will realize there is a Light that shines as well, a Light the night can never overpower, a Light that lives in everyone who receives it.

Looking back I can see moments when the swirl of life and my own sinfulness and stupidity caught me up in the pain of everything around me. Sometimes I guess I just had to learn the hard way. Still, there are also many more places where, in times of reflection, I’ve seen that the God who came into the world on this holy night was also with me as well, preserving, helping, healing, and granting me grace even when I was convinced I was unworthy of it or actively ran away from it. If I can remember Christmas Eve’s decades ago I can even more recall from this place in my life those moments when the Child of Bethlehem came not just to the rescue of the world but mine as well. Every Priest has scars.

Yet, this is the gift I would like to leave with you today, especially those who’ve not traveled through time as far as I have. God is with us, always has been, and from those days long ago in Judea nothing has changed. The world can fling mighty arrows our way and even we ourselves can be caught up in self-harm but mercy and healing and grace have touched this sometimes sad and broken world and its ours for the taking, the greatest gift of all, eternal, unbreakable, in history but beyond its impact, ours now and also stored away where, as our Lord says, moth and rust have no power and no thief can steal it. Never forget this because the world is rough sometimes but not so rough that its escaped the grasp of the King who came to us as a baby and will one day return as the Lord of history.

A child, the Son of God, has been born. Receive Him. Believe Him. Love Him. Rest in Him. Let His forgiveness cleanse the past. Let His mercy flow from you to the world. And let love drive away every anxious moment, soothe every fear, forgive every wrong, and lead you safely Home.