“Make Room for Peace“
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
December 24-25, 2020
Scripture: John 1:1-18
I had dinner with a bunch of priests on Tuesday night. It was a nice dinner, because 1) I didn’t get arrested; and 2) it was a free dinner. We talked about a number of things…basically a whine session…about people not coming to church and things like that. One of the priests, a great guy, said “Jesus told us to feed the sheep…not count them.” And, that’s true.
So, we have the Special Forces of the Catholic faith here with us tonight. You braved this terrible COVID epidemic to be here. You have come out to be a part of Christ’s act of love. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of our Lord’s coming to earth in human form with the human nature He took from the Blessed Mother. Today, we don’t have to look up to heaven, we can look down at Jesus in the manger or over there in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Now, heaven is on earth until the end of the world, because our Lord resides there in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Remember when I told you about the Mass not being an inanimate object like that candlestick over there? The Mass is not a stage-play. It is not a what. It is a “Who.” It is a sacrifice of Christ offered by Christ to the Father.
Scripture says there was peace when Jesus was born. Know why? Because anyone who put their head up, the Romans chopped it off. The Romans did not take kindly to disagreements, and they did not invite dialogue. Don’t like Rome? Whack! Peace was restored, and they had legions of armies to enforce it. Peace is not a what. It’s not a thing, and it’s not a prize. It is a person. Jesus is our peace. He told us in the Gospel, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” The Lord is with us always. What is He offering? Himself. He is our peace. Peace is not found by changing the personal pronouns referring to people. It is not found in tearing down statues or renaming schools. Peace is not found in giving away stuff. It is not an agreement where everyone gets together in Geneva and signs something. Peace is not found in calling evil, good and good, evil.
True peace comes from having Christ in our soul. The price of peace is losing our sinfulness, our selfishness, our bond to self, and our love of sin. The greater we grow away from ourselves, the greater Christ can come into our souls. Physics tells us that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. So, the more peace we want, the more sin and selfishness we must rid ourselves of. Christ offers as much of Himself as we want. He is our peace….a true peace that no one can take from us. What is the cost? The cost is the one thing none of us want – all the evil and garbage in our souls.
Sin is what drives Christ out of our hearts. I feel really bad for the police, because for the past several nights, they have been very, very busy. These days, all people want to do is fight. That’s all sin. The police don’t want to enter into fights…they want to go home to their families. People are not fighting because they don’t have an iPhone 5…or whatever number it is up to now. They are fighting because they don’t know Christ who is our peace. We will have peace on earth only when we have peace in our souls.
How will you apply this message to your life? Will you make more room for Christ by ridding yourself of sinfulness and selfishness?
Father’s Afterthoughts….• In the last sentence of today’s Gospel, it says Joseph didn’t have relations with Mary before she gave birth to a son. Now, you may be thinking, “Well, that means Mary could have had other children.” As lawyers would say, “That assumes facts not in evidence.” The Gospels tell us only what we need to know. Did you ever notice that the Scripture never talks about dinosaurs? They existed, but they were not essential to the message of salvation. Scripture only tells us what we need to know. So, non-Catholics cannot say that Mary and Joseph had other children. It’s just not true.• Yesterday, I received a rather odd message from my sister-in-law. She said that my brother sold something on E-Bay. My brother has been dead for 18 months. I’m thinking, “Where do they send the check?” Fair question! Welcome to my family. And, you think yours is strange.