Homily: Solemnity of Christmas
December 25, 2025
My dear brothers and sisters, with gratitude to God, we have gathered today to celebrate the birthday of our Savior Jesus Christ. In Luke 2:10, when the angel announced to the shepherds about Jesus’ birth, the angel said, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people.” What good news is more joyful than the coming of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, this is a good news to be shared.
In Christmas, we celebrate God’s presence, in Christmas, we celebrate intimacy with God, in Christmas, we celebrate God’s love for humanity. In Genesis 3:8, when Adam and Eve committed sin, they lost God’s presence. They hid themselves from God. Similarly in Genesis 4:6, when Cain murdered his brother Abel, he went away from the presence of God. Since then, humanity groped in the darkness of sin and hopelessness. However, at Christmas, something uniquely wonderful happens. God’s presence is now given us in the person of Jesus Christ. God has come to be with us to restore our lost glory.
God did not merely appear as a man. God became man. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind, acted by human choice, and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin. If we follow the salvation history, the journey from the Old Testament Patriarchs and the prophets up to the coming of Jesus, we will come to see that God Himself and the entire host of heaven did not take the salvation of humanity as a matter of trivial importance. The coming of Jesus was part of the eternal plan of God for ages. We ourselves should not be the people to take our salvation as a joke.
It became unfortunate that notwithstanding the many years of preparation and waiting for the coming of the Messiah, when Jesus finally came, He was not recognized, He was not wanted, there was no room for Him in the abode of humans, it was only domestic animals who made a little space for Him. Brothers and sisters, we really need to beware that a repeat of this sad reality is not happening in our time. We must welcome Jesus who came to us that we may be saved.
There was this couple who had a birthday party for their first child. Many were invited. These guests came and congratulated the father and the mother of the child. The guest now asked where the child was. The parents of the child said, “the child is not here, we sent him to his grandparents because he will disturb us with his crying in this important birthday celebration.” Brothers and sisters, we must make sure that as we celebrate this solemnity of Christmas with rejoicing that we have not sent the Child Jesus away less His cry touches some aspects of our lives that do not align with our Christian obligations.
As we thank Jesus for what He did for us, let me thank you all too who follow the footsteps of Jesus. The year 2025 is coming to an end, here in our parish, we would not have made any progress without the combined effort we all put in for our parish to be a family of God. To all those who volunteered at the different councils and committees, our musicians, readers, children liturgy leaders, ushers, Eucharistic ministers, counters, altar servers, decorators. I can continue counting. The goodwill of our parishioners is indeed amazing. For your generous offerings and donations for the upkeep of our parish, I say thank you. It is my prayer that God’s choicest blessings will abide with you all in this blessed season. Merry Christmas to you all.
