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Dear Friends in Christ,

When our Lord was born in Bethlehem, two thousand years ago, we were given many things, many precious gifts - more gifts and of greater worth than anything we can hope to acquire or to give of our own.

For with the birth of Jesus Christ, God gave us redemption - and with redemption all the riches that mark our life as the life of the redeemed. We have Baptism, which makes us children of God, and potential heirs of Heaven; we have Penance, which lifts from our shoulders the heavy burden of guilt, guilt which is inescapable, since sin is inescapable - against ourselves and against one another; and we have the Eucharist, the ever-present Body and Blood of the One who redeemed us, and who told us, "Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you shall not have life within you."

And so we see, that because God became man, and was born on this day, for us, we have received from His life, this wonderful trinity of Sacraments by which we can share His life - a life opened, purified, fed and sustained by the very being of the God who made us, who saved us, and who calls us to Him with an unending call of love.

It was on this day, in Bethlehem, that the call of God gained its perfect voice, a voice that would later be raised to utter the most perfect teaching ever formed by human lips: "Love God above all things, love your neighbor as yourself" - a voice that would be stilled in the solemn sacrifice of life freely offered and given: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" - and a voice that would speak again beyond the tomb, saying to all, "Peace be with you - my peace I give you."

Christmas cannot be understood - Christmas cannot be appreciated unless we take this all in - unless we see, even in the innocence and simplicity of the stable at Bethlehem, the fullness and depth of Christ's life, with all its human giving, with all its human struggle, with its suffering and death, and with its final victory.

And Christmas cannot be understood, cannot be made to dwell in our hearts and souls, unless we in turn, give everything back to God; not in exchange - for nothing can be made to match His perfect gift - but given in an attempt to try and express to Him our love and gratitude.

This giving is not just a simple gush of feeling, not just the outpouring of sentiment we Feel when we consider the sublime generosity of God. It is much more - much, much more.

This giving of everything to God is what St. John describes, in one of his letters, when he says:

Have no love for the world, nor the things that the world affords…the world with its seductions is passing away, but the man who does God's will endures forever.

Christmas teaches us this lesson, because it requires us to try and give God as much as He has given us. And what do we give Him, what do we offer of the many treasures we possess?

We give God the innocence of our children, placing their care and their fates in His hands - we give Him the feeling we bear for our husbands and wives, for our mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers, and all who are beloved to us, knowing that the feeling we have for them, cannot be had, except that He gives it to us. And we give God the work of our hands - the living we make for the good of our families, the talents we possess to praise His glory and improve one another: our capacities to teach and to learn, to write and to sing, to execute the beautiful plans of our own design, to appreciate and cultivate the goodness of creation and nature, in wise stewardship - husbandry, agriculture, conservancy and beautification - and we offer many other treasures that are ours, good treasures - not because they come from the earth, but because, upon the earth, they have come from God.

And we know the difference, because there are many things that we know on earth, that cannot come from God: greed, lust, anger, pride, envy, gluttony and apathy. We tend to think these names, these seductions - these sins, to be old-fashioned, antique, as if such notions belong to another day, another age, another mentality, another catechism.

But all around us, the enemies of God and of Christ are preaching the gospel of these sins, saying: "There is no such thing as too much, there is nothing that you can't have or that you can't do - there is no one who can tell you what to do or not to do - so get as much as you can while you can, and if you have to step on someone to get it, well, that's life on earth, and there is nothing else."

In this very season of Christmas, the season of the holy birth of God among men, in simple serene poverty, the devil strides loudly across the stage, preaching the gospel of greed and avarice - and preaching so effectively, that many have completely forgotten what this day is for, who this day is for, and what its lesson for mankind was, is and must always be.

But we must turn, and keep turning from such folly - not only because the wisdom of our Church insists that we keep to the true spirit of this day, but also because of a warning - a warning that comes in a few words, in the Letter to the Hebrews, that we have heard this holy morning:

In times past, God spoke…through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son…

In these last days - in these last days.

For Christmas was not just a gift of God - the gift of new life in Jesus Christ. Christmas was and is a sign, a sign that something immense in the plan of Creation has been achieved, has been finished - the fullness of time, the coming of the ages, and the beginning of the last days.

We may or may not live to see the last of these days, but it is the time of the end in which we live - the time that has been perfected by Jesus Christ, who has re-opened the gates of Heaven, who has paid the price for the terrible sin of Adam and Eve, and who has given us, not only the gifts we need to enjoy our redemption, but the responsibility of living and teaching and sharing those gifts with others.

Dear friends, Christmas is a time to be filled with joy, and to seek peace with all we know - and I and the priests of this Archdiocese, this parish, and all who work for the Church in North Georgia, wish you all the joy, and all the peace that Christ can give - all the joy and peace that was born in Bethlehem, that holy night, two thousand years ago.

But, as we begin this new year of faith and hope, knowing full well that we journey through the last of days, we also join together, as Church, as the One, True Church, to ask God for strength - strength to obey His call, His endless call of love, heard now in the voice of His Son Jesus Christ - and to obey the command of that same Son, our Lord and Redeemer, whose last words among us were these:

Be my witnesses . . . unto the very ends of the earth.

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