Fr. Michael Williams

Tonight we are celebrating the birth of the Saviour, “Christ the Lord”. About two thousand years ago, when the Saviour was born in Bethlehem, the angel told the shepherds, “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord”. The world needed a Saviour then; and the world needs the Saviour today. St Joseph had been told by the angel, “Mary will give birth to a son and you must name Him Jesus, because He is the One who is to save His people from their sins”. The heavenly messengers reveal that Jesus is the One to save us from sin; the very name Jesus means ‘God Saves’. Tonight we are celebrating that “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through Him the world might be saved”. The Son is the great gift from the Heavenly Father sent to save us. How sad that many people will not unwrap this great gift this Christmas. It wasn’t because of “any righteous actions we might have done” that the Saviour was sent; “it was for no reason except His own compassion that He saved us”. The gift of Christ into our lives is a pure gift. The great Apostle Paul, who experienced Jesus’ saving power as a free gift would one day write, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners”.

When “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners”, He came in poverty and in humility. ‘God humbled Himself to allow us to get near Him’ (Escriva). The gospel reveals that “there was no room for them at the inn”. The Holy Family, was also a homeless family, with nowhere to stay; they were rejected and given no help. The gospel also reveals to us that the Saviour was “wrapped in swaddling clothes” and laid “in a manger”; the Saviour was not wrapped in luxurious gowns and laid on sumptuous blankets. And the first people invited to pay homage to the Saviour were the lowly shepherds, “who lived in the fields” as poor agricultural labourers; the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, and his court, were not the first to be invited.

At Bethlehem, the house of bread, Jesus came in lowliness. Today Christ also comes to us in poverty and humility because God is unchanging. Tonight the Lord Jesus comes to us under the lowly appearance of bread and wine. In the Holy Eucharist we will receive the babe of Bethlehem. Our hearts are to be the mangers where Christ is laid. So then let us open our hearts to Christ our Saviour, who humbled Himself so that we could be exalted.

CS Lewis, most famous as the author of the [Narnia Chronicles]{.underline}, was also a devout Christian. He summed up the coming of the Saviour as follows: ‘In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down;…to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him”.

This Christmas let us give thanks that “a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord”.