説教
“Our eyes have seen His glory.”
A Christmas meditation on the Gospel
according to St. John 1:1-18
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
‘The Word became flesh, He lived among us, and we saw His glory.’
I, as your priest, wish all of you a happy Christmas. May God bless you all.
We have been ‘waiting for Our Lord and His kingdom, trusting in His promises’ (2 Peter 3:13) during this Abvent when things are unseen due to the spreading the Covid 19 worldwide, including here in Japan. We have realized the truth that only things we can trust in are God’s promises. Now we rejoice that the God’s promises are fulfilled by welcoming Our Lord as Jesus Christ born of Our Lady Blessed Virgin Mary at Christmas.
In England for many years at every Christmas midnight Mass, I as the main celebrant at the Mass processed toward the Altar of the Church holding a bambino, a little figure of the baby Jesus, in my hands carefully, and then at the Christmas stables I put the bambino in the manger with a great care and knelt before it, then I started the celebration Mass.
Every year at the midnight Mass, I was reminded of the time when I first held a little baby in my own arms. At the same time, I was reminded of the old man called Simeon who held the baby Jesus in his arms when Jesus was brought to Simeon by Mary and Joseph at the Temple in Jerusalem. Simeon burst to sing, moved with joys and tears as follows:
‘Now, Master, you are letting your servant go in peace as you promised; for my eyes have seen the salvation which you have made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel.’ (Luke 2:29-32)
‘The Word became flesh, He lived among us, and we saw His glory.’
At Christmas, we will be invited by Mother Mary to receive the baby Jesus and to hold Him in our hands in the form of the most Blessed Sacrament. Then together with the old Simeon we will receive the same baby Jesus, all the promises of God and His graces, in our hands and our hearts as well again in the form of the most Blessed Sacrament during the Mass. And then, perhaps, we may join Simeon to sing the same hymn with him.
At the Mass at Christmas, we will also be invited, together with Mother Mary, to stare gently and joyfully at the baby Jesus born of His Mother and to hold Him in our hands thankfully as His Mother Mary did at the very night of Christmas at Bethlehem.
At the same time, we will also be invited together with Mother Mary to share with her joys, her fears of God, her lovely impressions, her peace and her motherly tears, as well as her prayers of thanksgiving to God because of her Son and God’s Son Jesus Christ.
‘The Word became flesh, He lived among us, and we saw His glory.’
Yes, indeed, the God has become man who has lived among us. We with Mother Mary stare at this truth, first in the baby Jesus at Bethlehem at Christmas, and then in the most Blessed Sacrament wherever the Mass is celebrated now and everywhere.
Since the first Christmas was celebrated, we have lived in the new era of the time of God and, thus, have lived on the truth, that is, God has fulfilled Himself with His promises in Jesus, and have lived as the witnesses of seeing God’s glory together with the old Simeon, and above all together with Mother Mary herself.
‘The Word became flesh, He lived among us, and we saw His glory, the glory that He has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.’
God’s glory which has appeared as His Son Jesus Christ is, as witnessed by Simeon on his old days, a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for His people Israel. God the Father will save the world and will make men alive and will give honour to men in His Son Jesus and through Him and by Him.
Indeed, it is true that what God has given to men in His Son Jesus Christ is God Himself with all His blessings and His graces and above His Love at Christmas. It should, however, be and will be continued and will be repeated at all the times, not only at Bethlehem at Christmas but also at every Mass at the Catholic Church all over the world.
The God’s truth and blessings cannot end at Christmas, but will be continued because it is God’s will to give Himself in Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at every Mass.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
