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Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Vigil, Year C, 24.12.09

Isaiah 62:1-5
Acts 13:16-17, 22-25
Mathew 1:18-25

This evening, we are gathered for a very special celebration.

Yes, we are here to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It is a very defining moment when at the appointed time, God fulfilled His promise of salvation, and His Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ.

Indeed, God has fulfilled His promise and that is why we gather in such numbers to testify that God has indeed fulfilled His promise.

We are not here just for the Christmas mood.

Because if we just want to have some Christmas mood, we might as well go down to Clarke Quay or Orchard Road.

But with the crowds and the jam, our Christmas mood might end up being Christmas moody.

So we made the right choice to be here, right?
Quite comfy, most of us have a seat, some are standing, but it is okay, we are happy to be here.

We are happy to be here to celebrate the birth of Christ 2000 years ago.

But we are here this evening for yet another defining moment.

Because we are here to witness God making another promise to us.

That promise we heard in the Gospel, that God is with us and that He promised to be with us always.

And that is why we are here to celebrate this Christmas Mass – we are here to testify that God has fulfilled His promise of a Saviour and God is promising us that His Saviour is not going to leave us, that He is going to be with us always.

Because God is with us, we are assured that He knows what we need, He knows the longings of our heart, He knows our anxieties and our worries.

Maybe that is why children are usually fascinated with Santa Claus, because they think or expect him to know what they want.

How children communicate with Santa Claus I am not sure, but let me share this joke with you,

Santa Claus was in the toys section of a department store and a little girl came up to him.

So Santa asked the little girl: Well, my dear girl, what do you want for Christmas?

The little girl stared at Santa, her jaw dropped and she looked surprise and shocked. So Santa asked her what was the matter.

The little girl asked Santa: You mean, you did not get my email?!

Oh yes, the way we communicate nowadays have gone electronic.

But God hoes not communicate with us by email.

Because His Word is now made flesh in Jesus, and Jesus is the new promise that “God is with us”.

The birth of Jesus tells us that we don’t have to always be chained to the stupidities of the past and its darkness.

Because Jesus is the light that brings new hope and a new vision that challenges our pessimism and opens our eyes to His presence among us.

Let me share with you a story about a pair of twins whose resemblance to each other was only in their looks.

They are opposite in every way. One being a bright optimist and the other a gloom and doom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, to see if anything would change, on Christmas Day, when the family was out, the father had the pessimist son’s room filled with every imaginable toy and game.

The optimist son’s room was loaded with horse manure.

When the family came home, the father waited a while and then he walked past the pessimist son’s room.

He found him sitting with his new toys but crying bitterly, and the father asked him why.

The pessimist son replied: Because my friends would be jealous, I’ll have to read all the instructions before I can play with them, I’ll constantly need new batteries, and my toys will eventually be broken.

The father sighed and then he walked past the optimist son’s room.

He found him dancing for joy in the pile of horse manure.

So the father asked: What are you so happy about?

The optimist son answered: Well, I got my Christmas wish; there must be a pony somewhere.

So do you think the father will get him a pony? Sure, why not?

Christmas us a time for us to open our eyes to God’s blessings and graces, and to see his greatest gift of love, and that is Jesus.

Because with Jesus, we can only look forward for the best, and not fear and prepare for the worst.

Because of Jesus, we do not need to worry and fret when things start to crack.

After all, there is a crack in everything.

But, that’s how the light gets in.