Brief synopsis of the readings: As is my custom I’m using readings from the mass during the night (previously known as Midnight Mass). Frankly I do this because it allows me to preach on the birth account in Luke. Our first reading comes, as we might expect, from Isaiah. Isaiah describes how those in the dark can now see a light and their burdensome yoke is lifted. All this is due to the birth of a child who will be “Wonder-Counselor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace.” Luke’s Gospel describes how Joseph and Mary made their way to Bethlehem. While there Mary gave birth to Jesus in a barn. Nearby shepherds were visited by an angel who told them about Jesus and they abandoned their flocks to come and see Jesus.

It is generally believed among many baseball fans that baseball was invented when Abner Doubleday first laid out a baseball diamond in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. It’s not remotely true: Mr. Doubleday spent the summer of 1839 at the United States Military Academy in West Point and baseball developed from other games called town ball and rounders. But our desire for a clean and clear origin myth allows us to ignore all this, to travel to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, and watch a game on Doubleday field.

We do this all the time in all sorts of settings. We imagine the parting of the sea in Exodus from the 1956 Charleton Heston movie The Ten Commandments when there is no mention in Scripture that it’s the Red Sea. If I asked you to picture the Last Supper you’d probably think about Leonardo Da Vinci’s fresco from 1495: thirteen men all seated on the same side of a long table.

But when we picture the birth of Jesus we stick pretty closely to the account in Luke. Most homes I know have some representation of this scene, called a “Nativity Set” which was first popularized by Francis of Assisi in 1223. While most people of Jesus’ time probably expected the Messiah to come from a wealthy and important family we’ve never shied away from recognizing that Jesus was born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough meant for animals. We’ve also never shied away from the fact that Mary and Joseph were unmarried and would soon be exiles racing to another country to prevent Jesus being murdered. This scene would hardly be what the Pharisees would make up. It also wouldn’t be the scene conjured up by most wealthy and powerful Christian leaders.

You see, we humans are hard wired toward certain behaviors and among them is the desire for wealth and power, along with respect for those who have it. If you don’t believe this, think about how much publicity follows the yearly issue of Forbes Magazine when it ranks the world’s wealthiest people. Given that why wouldn’t we look toward the rich and the powerful to save us?

Magicians work hard at their craft and are exceptionally good at something they call “diversion.” They have us look in one direction while the trick happens in front of us but not where we’re looking. Understand I’m not saying that God tricks us but we often miss what God is telling us because we’re looking in the wrong direction. We’re looking at the rich and the well educated while God works his magic with the poor and the exile.

We are called to move beyond our hard wiring. We are certainly called to be human but we are called to be so much more. We are not called simply what we are created, we are called to what God dreams of for us. Jesus was born to us so that this human, who is divine, comes among us. As God became human, so does God call us to become divine. This crashing of human and divine does not diminish God but it does elevate us.

As I write this some of the smartest scientists in the world are working on something called nuclear fusion. We’ve been able to create nuclear fission for decades and involves harnessing the energy when we divide one large molecule into several smaller ones. But fusion harnesses the energy when we bring together two smaller molecules. We mimic how the sun and stars bring us light and energy.

Light: we are also hard wired for fear the dark, as evidenced by the rousing business of nightlights. As I was once told at the San Diego Zoo, almost all predators who are a threat to humans have better night vision than we do. As I’ve said before we don’t really know when Jesus was born but celebrating his birth at the darkest time of the year makes some sense. In darkness we find our greatest need for hope.

It’s often said that “it’s always darkest before the dawn” but that’s not true. It darkest at midnight, not just before sunrise. But as our hope wanes and we fear that the darkness will defeat us, it feels like it’s darkest. It is only our faith that carries this through our darkest times.

We probably all have examples in our own life. I entered a seminary the first time when I was 20 and when I was 24 I recognized I had no future as a priest from that order. I left convinced that God was calling me to be a high school youth minister. In the next six months I searched for a parish and interviewed at 5 different churches. None of them hired me. A few months later I got a call from All Saints Catholic Church in Manassas, Virginia. They weren’t looking specifically for someone to work with the high school students but someone who would administer a religious education program for ages 4 to 18. There were 1,000 students, 100 teachers and I had virtually no experience with that. At my interview I learned that they hoped to find a replacement for the current director: he was a priest whose alcoholism had gotten so bad that he was no longer able to hide the fact that he was having an affair with a single mother in the parish. While I understood that God often acts in mysterious ways I couldn’t believe God was that crazy. Long story short I took the job and my three years there were some of the most important in my life.

I tell this not to brag but to explain that the weeks before I took the job were some of the darkest of my life. I wasn’t sure where God wanted me and wondered at times if God had lost me in the shuffle of all his work. I honestly had no Plan B and this opportunity came out of nowhere.

As we celebrate Christmas 2022 let us recognize that God’s light never extinguishes and never dims. Whatever blocks the light will be removed and we should always recognize that we may need to shift our direction.

Merry Christmas to all!