Kent Beausoleil, S.J.

Children’s Christmas Eve Homily – December 24, 2008

Readings: Isaiah 9:1-7; Hebrews 1:1-6; Luke 2:1-20

The thing that I love about any holiday, but most of all Christmas, is the chance to reminisce. So holidays and Christmas are times we not only celebrate the holiday but times we also remember the memories of things that we are grateful for, the people and places that matter, the events that change one’s life for the good. So, this Christmas, as I think of the reality that more than 2000 years ago, our God was born into this world, as human as much as you and I are human, as humankind’s greatest gift, I have been thinking as well of the gift of all the friends I had growing up in my neighborhood. School friends, parish friends, neighborhood friends – friends are great aren’t they?

One of the things that my friends and I liked to do, and I am sure that some of you and your friends might like to do, is to build forts. In winter we would build snow forts for snow-ball fights. Or if it got too cold out we would might go inside and use some friends family’s dining room table, for example, and make our fort there. Or during summer, under a hot sun, we would find refuge, under my aunt and uncle’s huge wooden back porch with its four brick supports and four wood lattice walls and there we made an awesome fort. However, when it was warm out, we always tried to make our favorite fort from my family’s extra long, extra wide picnic table (if it was not being used) – because my mom always made us some kool-aid™ and brownies.

To our fort we would bring cushions and pillows that we used for our walls or for something to sit on. We would always bring food and snacks to share, blankets to cover us and to enclose the structure of our fort to shelter us, and we would play there and there share the stories of our lives. So, this Christmas I am thinking of the many gifts that were given to me during that time, the gifts of deep friendships, the gift of community – of people who cared about one another – the gift of self-esteem that flowed out of these relationships, the strength we had in one another, and the freedom to share our stories, to dream and imagine, to hope for a better future.

Christmas is a time to not only remember, but is also a time where we look forward to the our future as well.

The ancient Israelites, if you remember from our first reading from Samuel, came to worship God under a tent, a fort if you will, in the dessert. Every Sunday and Holiday we come to worship here at Bellarmine Parish, and if you look at the outside of the building, to the shape of it what do you see . . . [ask a kid?] a tent, a fort, that’s right. I guess Jesus was making me think of my childhood friends and our fort building because in reality our faith is our fort, our fortress, our strength, something that we can take with us as gift as we continue our life’s journey. So what are the gifts of Christmas, how has Jesus, and our faith in him, been gift.

[Place First Cushion] The first gift of Christmas, or the first leg of our faith’s fortress, is that Christ is alive, that tomorrow we remember the day that God, this God who loves us so much, was born in human form, so that every human could be given healing, forgiveness, and salvation. We deepen our connection with our friend Jesus as we hear the story of his birth once again, just as we listen to the stories of our friends and they listen to our stories as well. As we listen to the story of Jesus we really come to feel and to believe in the depths of our heart the true reality and gift of God’s love. How awesome a gift is that!?

[Place Second Cushion] And since Jesus was born and lived then truly, the second gift of Christmas, or the second leg of our faith’s fortress, is that Christ is alive in the world. Yeah, sometimes the world my throw us some snowballs, and from time to time some bad things may happen, but since Christ really and truly was born, that God became human, we have faith that our human world has been changed for the good. And the more we have faith that Jesus is alive in the world, the more we have hope.

If we really think about it, about all the stories we know of Jesus, we know that Jesus’ worked to bring love to the world, that Jesus’ acted to transform corrupt powers to become powers that work for the common good, that Jesus loved us by bringing mercy, compassion, and forgiveness to our world, that Jesus fights for us wherever there is injustice, that Jesus, ultimately shows us, since he was human like us as well as God, that through his rising after his death, that God’s true love for us and our life will have no end, that we too will find everlasting life and love. How awesome a gift is that!?

[Place Third Cushion] The third gift of Christmas, or the third leg of our faith’s fortress, is that Christ is alive in our friendships, our family, and our community. The gifts of Jesus, how he forgives us, heals us, cares for us, teaches us, and saves us in our life helps us to understand than how much God truly loves us all for we are all God’s children. Yes, sometimes, friends may say and do things that hurt us, and we may from time to time hurt others, or sometimes as family members we are not always nice to one another, or sometimes in our community we may hear of people who are hurting, who are ill, who pass away, and so we feel discouraged.

Yet, the truth is, always to remember, that the gift of Jesus and the gifts of Jesus, is present here now all around us. So, the more we let the love of Jesus in our hearts, the more we let Jesus teach us of God’s love for us, the more we let Jesus forgive us, care for us, heal us, the more we will be moved to bring those same gifts to all we love, to our friends, to our family, to our community. The more we realize the gift of Jesus in our life the more we become Jesus for others, and in doing so Christ lives. How awesome a gift is that!

[Place Fourth Cushion] Which brings us to the fourth gift of Christmas, the last leg of faith’s fortress, is that Christ is alive in each one of us – in each one of you dear children. As you grow and develop your friendship with Christ, as you allow Jesus to walk with you to school, to be with you in your home, to join in your play, to be your companion in your chores at home, to be present in your family, you will find more and more peace in your life, you will find the strength to get through life’s difficulties, the reality that with Jesus you can do anything, you can with him be a power and force in the world for good, for justice, for a love that brings light to the darkness. Jesus is gift, a friend, that will never leave you, and because Jesus loves us, we find out that we are a precious gift as well, and that is why we celebrate and remember how wonderful and awesome Christmas, Jesus’ birthday, is.

Yes, truly our faith is our fortress. Christ lives and will come again. Christ forever lives in the world, in our family friends and community, and in our hearts. In the forts my friends and I made when we were young, and that perhaps you too have made, we found strength not only in the walls that supported us and comfort in the blanket that covered us [put blanket over altar, stand behind altar] but in one another. We rested our weary bodies on the cushions we brought with us and were nourished by the snacks we brought and the stories we told. And so our faith in Christ alive supports us and sustains us, gives us rest, gives us strength, and nourishes us in word, (the stories of the bible as well as the stories of our life), and in sacrament, (the food, the bread and wine blessed and broken for all) and for this we give thanks as we celebrate and remember this day, the birth of our friend and savior, Jesus the Christ. Merry Christmas.

[Duck under altar fort where gifts are and peek my head out and say . . . ]