God so loves you: Homily for Christmas 2021

I never show my work when it comes to homily writing (you know when priests say “as I was reflecting on the readings” — yeah we get it, bro, just say the thing) but I’ll make an exception in this case cause it’s kind of the point of the homily. I scrapped 3 or 4 drafts of another homily and decided to start fresh because I had too many competing ideas and I was losing track of the message. I also spilled chai tea on the last draft.

So, getting right to it this time.

The message of Christmas is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that those who believe in him may not perish but have eternal life. This is a direct quote from John 3:16.

If the second part is too much for one sentence, even the first bit really gets at the core of Christmas: God so loved the world.

But what concerns me this Christmas is whether this message is getting through to people, especially those who need it most.

Why do I worry about the message not getting through? As I ponder the year 2021 there are worldly reasons and there Chuchly reasons. “Churchly” is not technically a word, but it is going to be for today. (A little Christmas gift to myself.)

Wordly Things

To the worldly part, I observe a number of social dysfunctions that prevent people from being loved as God loves. And I do want to insist on keeping that in mind as the gold standard.

Looking at this year or so, let’s just think of the problems the pandemic has emphasized. One of these is the expectation that everyone will continue to operate normally while our loved ones, coworkers and others across the globe are diagnosed with and die from the virus, Millions of others were suddenly forced to live their lives inside, often cut off from basic human needs, including that for social interaction.

How many working people and students among us here have heard a line from your boss to the effect of: “Team, I know things are really hard right now, and we’re operating in unprecedented circumstances. But team, I believe in you all, and I am confident that we can push forward, get creative, and have our most successful year yet.”

It’s the “But team”s, “the “However”s and the “Having said that”s and the “Regardless”-es that reflect a grave dysfunction in how humans are viewed in this society. We’re valuable forasmuch as we’re useful and capable of carrying on in even the most inhumane conditions.

How many people have been told to step up for the team/the company/the office “family” only to find, when life becomes too much and we start to have, I don’t know, needs (like the need for a break, and for things to adapt) and then we learn that are in fact very replaceable, very disposable. (Corporations btw are not your friend.)

Even outside the office it is almost impolite to not be doing well, and to have needs accordingly. Rise and grind. Overcome. I blocked a friend for texting me rise and grind. I will not have that on my phone. Toxic. These themes are timeliness, but in a heightened way, they are recent worldly messages we receive about how we are to be in the world, what is unreasonably expected of us.

None of the worldiness I have described successfully allows us to be loved as God loves. Namely, a kind of unconditional love that upholds our dignity and worth in sickness and in health, that has nothing but tenderness to offer in the face of all that weighs on our minds and hearts.

God invites us to participate in his own life, but he does not need us to accomplish a project or provide the right amount of output per day. We are instead wanted for who we are: body, soul, delights and quirks, weaknesses and strengths, all of it.

Churchly Things

What now are some of my Churchly concerns? The things that I fear could prevent us from hearing and experiencing the message that God so loves the world?

I want to say first (not at all, to be honest, for fear of losing my job) I have been afflicted with a continued fondness for, and attachment to, the Catholic Church. I love so much of our history, our art, our theologies and spiritualities, the solace I get from our rituals marking life and death. But first and foremost, I can’t imagine it occurring to me to invite people into the Church if I did not think that Jesus was here. And that again, is because without him, the message is really lost.

And I don’t think I’m alone in having concern, hurt, and anger for what happens when the Churchly realm forgoes the mission and message of our founder, our center, our reason for being, in favour of a need to be triumphantly correct, to preach definitively every answer to every question without thought to the concrete circumstances of someone who has to live that answer.

Or when we forgo the message of our founder, our center, our reason for being for the sake of holding on to power, holding onto the myth of the superiority of one gender, one race, one ritual tradition over another.

Or forgoing Jesus to hold onto our reputation: the fear of what would happen if people knew how frail, how vulnerable, and even how full of sin the Churchly realm actually is.

For those reasons I think it’s fair right now to worry about this Christmas message coming through, this message that God so loves the world.

I wonder if, because of these counter messages and the doubts they create in so many hearts, if it wouldn’t be helpful to name a few residents of the world that God so loves, remembering that not all of us are so privileged to rarely, if ever, have to wonder.

For example.

We celebrate Christmas because God so loves women, whose contributions to the Church are vital, and yet are so often met with sexism or outright misogyny from the pulpit and elsewhere.

God so loves lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people.

God so loves trans people.

God so loves depressed people, anxious people, all those who struggle each day with despair, and who may not be able to leave their bed, try as they might. (If that is you, I hope you cozy up with some tea and a book or movie this Christmas and give yourself permission not to be well, knowing that God so loves you.)

God so loves people living with addictions, and has nothing but compassion for us.

God so loves those who hate their bodies or hate themselves.

God so loves people who, for whatever reason, do not love him.

When Christ took on a body, it was as if the love of God radiated to every-body. God entered our family tree, infused us with his DNA. There could be no doubt of the love of God for each and every human being after Christmas, and this message is especially important to hear for those who do doubt because of worldly or Churchly reasons.

So, there’s your homily. I don’t have a tight, poetic ending and to be honest, that doesn’t really matter. The point is that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that each of us might have eternal life.

Friends, wherever you are and whoever you are: God so loves you.

Merry Christmas.