(This homily was originally given on Christmas Eve, 1989 by our founder Fr. Bob Bedard at St. Mary’s Parish in Ottawa, ON)
Christmas is an amazing time. It seems to have captured the imagination of the world. There is something fascinating about it. Lights, decorations, the cards people send to one another, the music, it is everywhere.
There is an emphasis on getting together. Special meals are prepared.
Christmas seems to bring out the best in people. It seems to bring out a streak of generosity that is dwelling in all of us. There is talk about a Christmas spirit.
Jesus wants you, he wants me, he wants your heart. Once he has your heart he can go to work. He can fashion us in such a way that the Christmas spirit will never die. It will go on every single day, and every single year of our lives.
How do we give our heart to the Lord?
You have to put aside your pride, what other people might think or say of you, the way you have always been, the intellectual constructs that maybe some of us have placed upon God. We have to let him out of the cage we put him in.
Our faith of which our religion is an expression, is not so much a membership in an organization or following a set of rules and regulations. Our faith is principally a relationship with a person. That is the person who’s birthday we celebrate at Christmas time, Jesus Christ.
If you and I can invite the Lord to take over in our hearts Christmas will go on all year round.
Try giving your heart to Jesus Christ.