ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Monsignor Thomas Murray,

It is a great joy for me to be here on this Christmas day in Visitation B.V.M. Parish. I greet you, Father Patrick McManus, and your brother, Monsignor Ignatius Murray, together with all the people of God who make up this vibrant parish family. How pleased I am to celebrate with you the Birth of Jesus. On this day, dear Friends, the Church proclaims: "A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. Today a great light has come upon the earth."

The great light that has come upon the earth is Jesus Christ Himself. He comes to dispel the darkness of our world.

The holy day that has dawned upon us is the day of His birth, the birth of Jesus, the birth of the Savior. This holy day is today. It is our Christmas day 2006.

It is the day on which the Church proclaims the birth of God’s own Son, the Son of the Eternal Father, the Eternal Word of God, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, who has become the Son of Mary.

It is the day on which the Church invites us to find the little Child—our God—in the Crib of Bethlehem, in the arms of His Virgin Mother Mary, in the presence of her husband Joseph, the Child’s foster-father, and surrounded by the shepherds who came to see the newborn Child.

This holy day is the day on which the Church does more than just invite us to find the Child in the arms of His Mother. The Church invites us also to adore the Child clothed in the humanity that His Mother gives Him. For this reason we repeat: "Come you nations, and adore the Lord." Come, brothers and sisters, and adore the Lord! Come, parishioners of Visitation Parish. Come, all you faithful members of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Come, America, and adore the Lord! In Him you will find new hope and joy.

But in order to adore the Lord, the newborn Child of Bethlehem, with all the power of our being, we must penetrate ever more the mystery of the Child, the reality of His humanity and His divinity, the meaning of His Birth, and its many consequences.

Today let us look at the Child, and with Mary and Joseph try to understand Him.

Last night at midnight we read the beautiful Gospel of Saint Luke. The time for Mary to give birth arrived while she was at Bethlehem. She gave birth to a Son. We heard the wonderful announcement of the Angel to the shepherds: "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. This day in the city of David there is born to you a Savior who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign to you: you will find an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

Today in our Christmas liturgy we find this Infant. We find Him in the beauty and the limitations of His humanity. We find Him as a baby, the Son of Mary. We know that Joseph is His foster-father, His legal guardian. Through Joseph, Jesus is recognized to be of the royal lineage of King David.

In His birth Jesus shares our humanity. And with this humanity, He loves us in a thoroughly human way.

Through this humanity, which he received from Mary His Mother, Jesus will suffer and die for our redemption. Through His humanity He will become our Savior. The very name Jesus means Savior.

This morning in the Christmas liturgy that we are now celebrating, the Church proclaims to us that the Son of Mary, the foster child of Joseph, is indeed the Son of God. God is His Father by an eternal relationship. Jesus is God’s eternal Word. He is the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity.

In His one person Jesus is true God and true man. He is divine like His Father. But He is human like His Mother and like us.

And here we have the grandeur of the mystery of Christmas. Here we have the explanation of the Baby born in Bethlehem. Here we see the full identity of Jesus Christ—the one who will live and die as one of us, the one who, because He is God, will save us from our sins and from death, and lead us to eternal life. He is the Son of God but He is also the Son of Mary. He is born to die, so that we may live and share in His divinity.

Years after His birth, we will find the same person, the same Jesus on Calvary, hanging on a Cross out of love for us. And among His last words one of them will be addressed to His Father and another one to His Mother. In this way Jesus will once more confirm His identity as Son of the Eternal Father and Son of the Virgin Mary.

The final secret of the birth of Jesus is found in the words of the Gospel this morning: "To those who accepted Him, He gave the power to become children of God."

To accept Jesus is to acknowledge and to share His relationship with His Father and with His Mother Mary.

But to accept Jesus also means to accept all those who share humanity with Him.

To accept Jesus is to accept His Church and all His brothers and sisters: to accept them in their needs—to accept to love one another, to serve one another in the name of Jesus, who took on our flesh at Bethlehem. The Birth of Jesus becomes for all of us then a global call to solidarity with our brothers and sisters, with those who suffer, with those who mourn, with those in pain.

At Bethlehem, as a great light, Jesus shows us how to live a truly human life, how to share what we have with others—in order to share in the eternal life of God.

In the fifth century, Pope Saint Leo the Great summarized so much of the meaning of Christmas in these words: "Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness." Pope Saint Leo goes on to say: "No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing.... Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness...." He then concludes, saying: "Christian, be mindful of your dignity."

Today, dear Friends, the Church exhorts us to be mindful of the dignity that is ours, the dignity that we share with Christ and with one another. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born of the Virgin Mary. He has taken on our humanity and has lifted up all of us to God. Amen.