“FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER”

Mass of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesu Christ

IS 9:1-6 / PS 96: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13 / TI 2:11-14 / LK 2:1-14

There’s a first time for everything says an old proverb. Here in Cebu it will be our first time to host the International Eucharistic Congress next year.

For others, the upcoming national elections next year will be their first time to exercise their right to vote. In the showbiz world, what happened to Steve Harvey in last Monday’s Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas was probably his first time to commit a very horrible mistake. On a personal note, this Mass is also my first time to celebrate the Christmas Mass as a priest. Indeed, there’s a first time for everything.

Our Gospel tonight also tells us a lot of first time events in human history. For the first time, there came an empire that spans across the globe. For the first time, “all the world is to be enrolled for the purpose of determining and collecting taxes.” For the first time, there came a “great expanse of peace in the world.” Indeed, there’s a first time for everything. However, more than human history, our Gospel tonight tells us a very important first time event that affects both heaven and earth. And this first time is called the mystery of the Incarnation. Finally, for the first time, God took on human flesh and became one like us except sin. Finally, for the first time since the Fall of Man, God is once again closest to His creation. Finally, for the first time, using our second reading today from Titus, a God has come “to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse us for himself a people as his own.”

My dear friends of God, this is the real purpose of Christmas 2015 – that we recall that first Christmas more than 2000 years ago; that we reminisce that first time God gave us a second chance, a second chance to love Him again more dearly, more closely, and more sincerely.

That first Christmas is important because it opened for us a new beginning. We who have “walked in darkness, have seen a Great Light.” And such Light has brought us “abundant joy and great rejoicing.” Because of that first Christmas, life has been given a new meaning and a wider horizon.

Thus, we ask ourselves, what is the challenge of that first Christmas in the little town of Bethlehem in our complex and complicated world today? In our Gospel we heard the angels announcing to the shepherds of the great news. This too is our challenge today,that we announce to the world joyfully this Great News of the Incarnation by becoming first hand witnesses to the life and mission of this Jesus, the Word Made Flesh.

If Jesus was the first one who forgave his enemies, then, let us be first in forgiving our enemies. If Jesus was the first one who gave his all, then, let us be first in generosity. If Jesus was the first one who loved both his friends and enemies, then, let us be the first one to love all come what may.

 Anna, in the animation film, Frozen, has this to sing for us: “’Cause for the first time in forever, there’ll be music, there’ll be light…For the first time in forever, I’ll be dancing through the night… ‘Cause for the first time in forever, I won’t be alone.”

My dear friends because of that first Christmas, that first event when God became man, we are no longer walking in darkness and there is dancing through the night. Because of that first time in forever, we won’t be alone because God is with us. The Lord is with us. Amen!

Photo taken from www.catholictradition.org