Homily for the Christmas Eve Mass 2025

Wednesday December 24, 2025
Nativity of the Lord – Year A
Night Mass

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1^st reading: Isaiah 9, 1-6
Psalm: 95 (96), 1-2a, 2b-3, 11-12a, 12b-13a, 13bc
2^rd Reading: Titus 2:11-14
Gospel: Luke 2,1:14-XNUMX

“Peace be with you.” These were the first words of Pope Leo XIV on the day of his election when he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica: “Peace be with you.” And in the short address he gave afterward, he spoke of the disarming and disarming peace that God gives. Tonight, God lets us hear these words again: Peace be with you. This is what the angels sing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those who love him.God gives us his peace. The prophet Micah, speaking of Bethlehem, announces: “From you will come for me one who will rule Israel. He will arise and shepherd them by the power of the Lord, and he himself will be peace.” (Mi 5:1-3)

God gives us his peace, and this peace has a name and a face: Jesus. Jesus will assume, even in his own flesh, the role of peace. And the Easter newborn, if we can call him that, on the evening of the resurrection will appear to his apostles, saying to them as his first words: Peace be with you.

In the face of the din of weapons and wars, God gives us a newborn child.

In the face of the murderous hatred which means that almost every day we learn of the violent death of a young person killed in the street, God gives us a newborn.

In the face of the terrible abuses affecting children, God gives us a newborn baby.

In the face of the contempt shown for human life in its very first beginnings, as well as in its sometimes painful end, God gives us a newborn whose life began when he was conceived in his mother's womb; so much so that, when Mary went to greet her cousin Elizabeth, when she was a few days pregnant, John the Baptist, six months old in Elizabeth's womb, leaped for joy at the approach of the Savior.

God's response is first and foremost a newborn child who cannot speak. The word of God, the Word made flesh, begins by saying nothing… he will have to learn to speak. His presence is the word of God, a disarmed and disarming presence.

And today, God the Father calls us, invites us, to welcome this newborn child into our own lives. Those among you who have had the grace to bring forth new life know how much this new life disrupts the life of the one who welcomes it. Similarly, welcoming the Child Jesus into our lives is welcoming the one who will come to disrupt our lives. 

God comes to beg for our love in Jesus; he who is love wants to teach us to love by becoming poor. As Thérèse says in her account of that Christmas night:

He made himself weak and suffering for my love. 

And if Thérèse says it in the first person, we can each say it this way:

The word of God became weak and suffering out of love for me.

When we contemplate the Nativity scene during the Christmas season, let us allow these words of Thérèse to resonate in our hearts: "It is for me that the eternal Son of the eternal Father became weak and suffering. It is for my love, so that I may be made, like Thérèse, strong and courageous. And so that he may make me strong and courageous, as he made Thérèse, he needs my good will."

In an instant, Jesus accomplished the work I had been unable to do in ten years, content with my good will, which never failed me. (MsA 45)

The Savior is born today, and as Angelus Silesius said in the 17th^rd century:

"Jesus could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem, but if he is not born in your heart, it will all be for nothing."

Have I experienced Jesus saving me? In this world where the news constantly informs us of what is happening all over the world, in this world where anxiety is growing and for some, fear, does Jesus deliver me from my fear? Does he save me from my fear?

In this world where ideas so easily clash, will the Lord save me from the temptations of hatred, from the temptations of contempt for those who think differently from me, for those who may be virulent in their arguments, without respect for their opponent or interlocutor? Will the Lord save me from my own hatred, my contempt, my anger?

In the various temptations that may cross my path, does Jesus save me? It is about welcoming him, letting Mary place him within us so that he may dwell in our hearts through faith, as Paul tells the Ephesians (3:17). It is about, as Paul invites us to do in this letter to Titus (2:12), since the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all mento learn to to renounce ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live reasonably in the present age — it seems to me that we could also say “with wisdom”, the wisdom of God —, with justice and piety, awaiting the fulfillment of the blessed hope, the coming of Christ in glory.God gives us his peace. Christ gives us his peace. “I give you my peace, I leave you my peace. I do not give it to you as the world gives it.” (John 14:27). But what does the Lord expect of us? Well, the Lord expects us to be peacemakers. 

You remember, in the Beatitudes: the Lord blesses the peacemakers: they will be called children of God. But these peacemakers are among the poor in spirit, among the meek, among the merciful, among those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, among those who mourn with those who mourn, among those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, among those who are persecuted because of the name of Jesus. 

Being a peacemaker in this violent world cannot be done without being deeply united to Jesus as a Christian. And that is what God wants to accomplish for us: he wants to make us, as we have heard, a people eager to do goodThat's why Christ Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all our sins and to purify us, to make us a people eager to do good. 

Let us not fear men, let us not fear this world in which we live. Let us welcome the Lord Jesus concretely into our lives, let us live with him permanently. 

When Thérèse lived out her offering to merciful love and wrote down this great prayer of offering to merciful love, she ended the prayer by saying: "My God, I want to renew my offering with every beat of my heart." This means that it is not an isolated, one-time act, but an attitude of the heart. 

It is a matter of constantly welcoming the presence of Jesus through faith.

It is about permanently allowing the Lord to disarm us of everything within us that opposes true good. 

It is about welcoming his mercy also in the sacrament of forgiveness. 

It is about living a constant relationship with Jesus… and living this constant relationship with Jesus will not distract us from the other most important relationships in our lives, those that make up our first circle that helps us stand. 

The more we are united to Jesus, the more we welcome Him into our lives, the more we will be able to love those around us in deed and in truth. There is no competition between the love of God and the love of neighbor; on the contrary, the more the Lord Jesus is present in our lives, the more we can radiate His love and peace, the more we can extend God's peace to our world. 

Let us not believe ourselves powerless, brothers and sisters, in the face of the world's violence. Let us, by the grace of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, be peacemakers wherever we are.

May our life consist of being this constant greeting to those around us: Peace be with you!

Amen