Homily - Christmas 2024 TV Mass
Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola
What is Christmas All About?
“Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?” This was the question posed by Charlie Brown in the famous ‘60s episode by Charles Schulz, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Many of us are familiar with this epic from many years ago, which has been passed down for Christmas viewing every year. The story is a simple one in which Charlie Brown, always never fully accepted and somewhat down, seeks to celebrate Christmas. In order to bolster him, he is chosen by Lucy to direct the annual Christmas pageant put on every year by the friends who surround him. Charlie Brown is having a hard time finding anyone who has the true Christmas spirit and seem more caught up in the glitz, glamour and gifts of the season. Even his own dog, Snoopy, is caught up in the commercialism of Christmas.
As Charlie Brown goes to direct the Christmas pageant, he brings a sad-looking tree which he chose in order to decorate it for the pageant. He is with his good friend, Linus, who always carries a security blanket. Linus tries to dissuade him from that particular tree, but Charlie gets it anyway. He brings it to the pageant, where no one is paying attention. He is unable to concentrate on directing the pageant since everyone is more interested in singing and dancing the famous jazz tune of the program. They make fun of the tree he brings. Finally, in desperation and frustrated disappointment, Charlie Brown bolts out the central question, “Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?”
It is then that Linus takes center stage. With all attention focused on him, and from memory, recounts from the Gospel of St. Luke the account of Christmas. At that point, there is the turnaround of A Charlie Brown Christmas as everyone listens to Linus and are taken up into the real meaning of Christmas. As Linus is recounting the story, he lets go of his blanket when he speaks of the angel telling the shepherds not to be afraid. From Linus’ recounting of the Gospel of St. Luke, and all the characters being caught up in it, there is an entirely new spirit among them. This is so even to the point of Charlie Brown’s tree being decorated and shown in a new light with Linus’ blanket wrapped at its base.
The question that Charlie Brown asks is one that perhaps the world asks us today as believing Christians when this holy and happy season has gotten even more caught up in the glitz, glamour and consumerism of the season than in the ‘60s. Perhaps we ourselves are looking for the answer. The response is none other than our living the miracle of the Gospel, which tells us how the Son of God became an infant and how the world was caught up in this glory.
Christmas is a celebration of hope. It is a celebration that reminds us in a world torn by war, inequality, tragedy and lack of respect for God’s creation as He planned it, God always remains with us, even to the point of becoming one of us. Surprising as it might seem, God never sees us as the sad Charlie Brown tree we can be but glorifies us by becoming one of us. He will never abandon us, wrapping us in His love. Nothing but the words of the Gospel can give us this hope.
With the celebration of Christmas this year, we enter into a Jubilee Year of Hope. Pope Francis has called for this year and has opened the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to usher it in. The Holy Father tells us in the words of St. Paul that “Hope does not disappoint.” The problem, from the beginning of creation, is that so often hope is placed in the wrong things which cannot bring us true happiness but only disappointment.
It was at the beginning of creation, in Adam and Eve, that God continued to hope while we gave up. God would never turn against us, and he would never deny us the gifts He has given us in his creation, especially the gift of life and of eternal life. One of Pope Francis’ favorite authors is the French Catholic writer Charles Péguy, who impressed the pope with his words in a poem on hope, “God is the first to continue to hope for our good.”
All of us need hope. Christmas and the opening of the Year of Hope give us every reason to kindle that hope as we kindle our faith in God, who became one of us on this day. We need to put our faith in all the gifts which God has given to us. However, we do this, not for the sake of the gifts, but for what the gifts embody, and that is the life of God in us. Nothing can ever substitute for God, and Christmas is the celebration of that.
The words of the prophet Isaiah regarding hope are good ones to keep before us during this Christmas and New Year: “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength. … They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint” (Isaiah 40:31). Truly, it is the Lord that gives us the strength to keep going in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Isaiah makes clear that God gives strength to those who hope and trust in Him. As the prophet says, “Though young men faint and grow weary and youths stagger and fall, they that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, … they will soar as with eagle’s wings” (Isaiah 40:30, 31).
Charlie Brown was one who seemed to have lacked hope. He was searching for it but could not find it in his friends. However, the sincere recitation of the Good News of the Birth of Christ by Charlie’s friend, Linus, changed that for him and the others. May our celebration of the Birth of the Lord, as we hear the miracle of His becoming one of us, fill us with hope which truly brings us joy. May this Christmas be one of joy for you and all of your families, and may the Year of Hope remind us that it will not disappoint.
Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito
