Christmas Day 2018 Sermon

Christmas Day 2018 Dawn Mass    Gratitude

We are saved not by our own merits but by God's generous mercy.

We have to be grateful to Him for creating us in the first place, and then further that He would save us; that having defied Him many times He would still be prepared to offer us more chances to reconcile with Him.

That requires a double dose of gratitude – for being born and for being saved.

That is the one thing we can give back to God – gratitude.

We do not have to climb a mountain or swim an ocean; only humbly admit that we could not be saved but for His mercy and grace.

This admission will only come if we are humble. We take a humble stand before God, express gratitude, and from there we are more likely to serve Him in our daily lives

We will have a general desire to please Him and have goodwill to our neighbours.

Christmas is a time to get back to the beginnings, to reconfirm all these basic truths.

We could be otherwise than grateful. Many people are angry with God, or indifferent to Him.

What has God got to do with it, they will say.

They do not see that their lives, and this whole world come from Him, and are kept in being only by His will.

If we begin with ourselves we might leave God out of the picture. So we begin with Him instead, and then we see more clearly where we fit in.

We are children of a loving Father, disciples of a loving Saviour – this is the reference point for everything else in our lives.

We will be tempted to doubt God's closeness to us; instead we constantly re-affirm our trust in Him. The trust will increase with being expressed. This is one reason why the Church has these feasts, such as Christmas, to reaffirm what has always been true, but we might otherwise forget.

The right attitude is personified in Mary, Mother of God. She was the best person ever but was also the humblest.

She knew that it all came from God. She had a place for Him in her heart, such that it never would have occurred to her to go against His will, or offend Him in any way.

For the rest of us, besides Mary, there is the need to repent of our sin. As gratitude awakens so we become aware of the times when we have gone our own way. Never again. He forgives freely; He will never turn away the contrite sinner.

We are as humble as slaves but as free as children. In His mercy He lets us walk about freely, when in strict justice He could punish us with great vigour.

He wants us to have our heads held high, not in pride or conceit, but in the realization of His mercy towards us - like the prodigal son must have felt while eating the banquet put on for him.

We have had 2000 years to think this over. Does the human race get any humbler? It does not look like it. Sin continues to abound with all its evil effects.

God has been patient with us, taking so much abuse from the very people He is trying to save.

This is love at its fullest, when it is offered to someone who hates in response. Mercy is love at its fullest extension.

We can be transformed by such love and that is just what we pray for today, especially today.

God humbled Himself before us; as a Baby, and later, as one Crucified. Now we must do the same before Him.

God will work though whose who do humble themselves before Him, who show themselves receptive to His love.

The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. O come let us adore Him.