A Light Shines in My Darkness (and yours), and My Darkness Cannot Overcome It (yours can’t either)

Nativity of the Lord

The poverty of the Christmas story is the cause of its drama: the manger, the animals, straw, freezing weather, no room at the inn. There is nothing dramatic about kings born in castles or prophets born in a temple; the drama of the story comes from the poverty, from the fact that God claims a human life for himself in the flesh of a child, vulnerable, defenseless, ordinary in its experience of poverty. The best estimates we have tell us that 80% of the population of the Roman Empire lived in poverty at the time of Christ’s birth, and God chose that poverty for his home.

The violence of the ancient world is also a cause for drama. Christ is not alive for long before soldiers are sent to kill him; the murder of an infant considered a practical solution to the practical problem of holding onto power. The world into which Christ is born was consumed by violence. Historians estimate that as many as two million people were crucified by the Roman Empire in 500 years. Here is a more astonishing fact: 62% of Roman emperors were murdered by others who wanted power. Imagine living in a world in which 62% of presidents and prime ministers are assassinated for the sake of power. God makes the choice to enter that world as a defenseless child; more tension, more drama.

Tonight, we celebrate the birth of Christ in a world that is not much different from the world of two-thousand years ago. About 700 million people now live in extreme poverty; by American standards of wealth the number is closer to 3.5 billion. There is plenty of violence in the world today as well. Two examples: in the past 13 months, over 46,000 people have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war; in the last two years, as many as 350,000 soldiers and 13,000 civilians have died in the war in Ukraine.

The world in which we live is consumed by violence and poverty and yet tonight we celebrate Christmas because again, now, today, God makes the choice to live with us in our broken world. The story of Christmas remains a powerful drama because in a world consumed by violence and poverty a child is born, a son is given, and his name is Emmanuel, meaning God-with-us.

I want to tell you something that matters: the poverty and violence that consumes our world comes from us because inside of each of us is poverty and violence; poverty and violence inside of me, poverty and violence inside of you. I know that we do not like to talk about ourselves as the cause of what is wrong with the world. We prefer to place the blame on broken social institutions or irresolvable clashes of culture or the unacceptable consequence of religious division or the machinations of people who are thoroughly corrupted, people who are capital ‘E’ evil. Those causes are real, but those causes do not go deep enough; there is poverty and violence in our world because poverty and violence live inside each of us.

What kind of poverty? We lack virtues, character, right judgment. We are selfish by default, caring about ourselves more than others. We suffer from pride, telling ourselves that we know what we deserve, and we fight for it, even at the expense of other people. We lack justice, owning more than we need but telling ourselves we need more than we have, even though we know others have almost nothing. We let temptations consume us and allow ourselves to become addicted to pleasure or fame or wealth. And in the most casual, soul-numbing way imaginable, we have convinced ourselves that privileging comfort and pleasure in life is our birthright, the way we are supposed to live. There is poverty in us.

There is also violence in us. What kind of violence? The clash of desires, the ceaseless war of the mind and constant conflict of the human heart. We want what is good and we want what is evil; we know what is right and we know what is wrong; we love, and we hate; we sacrifice for others and then we take from others for the sake of personal gain; there is charity in us but also competition and malice. The war of the mind and the conflict of the heart is the cause of the violence that gets spilled out into the world in which we live; the problem with war is that you never win every battle, and in every battle, there are casualties.

We are the cause of what is wrong with the world; 8.2 billion of us making mistakes, choosing ourselves, sinning, the violence and poverty inside of us getting the best of us and spilling out into the world.

I do not mean to sadden you for Christmas; there is no cause for sorrow tonight. There is darkness inside of us but tonight Christ the light is given to us, a light that shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

We talk about Christmas and use words like ‘peace’ and ‘justice’ and ‘joy’ to describe a world in which Christ is born. Here is what I want you to know: peace and justice and joy are not the first gifts that Christ gives us; peace and justice and joy come later. The first gifts that Christ gives us are life and power. Christ is born to us so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Christ is born to us so that all things might now be possible through him who strengthens us.

The meaning of Christmas is here with us tonight, on the altar, the life and power of God blessed, broken, and given to us in the Eucharist. I will never understand why more people do not come to Mass. Here tonight we will receive the power needed to conquer the violence inside of us; here tonight we will receive the life of Christ needed to fill our impoverished souls with light. The mystery of Christmas is the life that God now makes possible for you: conquer the violence inside of you with the power of God and you will know real peace; fill the poverty of your soul with the life of God and you will know real joy; become a person of real joy and real peace and you will become a person who cherishes justice, wanting what is right, loving what is true, doing what is good, for each person, every person, who lives in the world around you.

The drama of salvation is not only about Mary and Joseph and a child born into poverty, surrounded by animals on a cold night because there was no room at the inn, preparing to run from murderers sent to assassinate an infant. The drama of salvation is also about you and me making the choice to claim the power and life that Christ offers us, each of us taking our stand in Christ and refusing to let the poverty and violence inside of us to consume us.

The world we want to live in is possible because of Christ alone, and the first step toward living in that world begins here, in my mind and my heart, and there, in your mind and your heart, the life and power of Christ making all things new. The world we want to live in begins with us, in conversion, person to person, generation to generation, committed to the labor of building up the kingdom of God.

Imagine a world in which 8.2 billion people have conquered the poverty and violence inside of them. Imagine the peace and joy and justice of a world defined by 8.2 billion people who love more than hate, give more than take, bestow mercy more than condemn, living free from malice and pride and competition and addictions to fame or wealth or pleasure. We are what is wrong with the world, but now a light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

I have a lot of hope for the world because of Christmas.

Homily preached on December 25th at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary