The Dawn of Our Hearts

Voice over by Rose Khaing Mye Thu

Isa 9,1-6; Psalm: 95; Titus 2,11-14; Lk 2:1-14

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, a holy and joyful Christmas to you! Tonight, the long night of waiting is over. The purple of Advent gives way to the brilliant white and gold of celebration. The God who seemed silent has spoken His definitive Word—not in a thunderclap, but in the cry of a newborn. The Scriptures tonight trace a glorious arc from ancient promise to present reality, inviting us to step out of our own shadows and into His marvelous light.

The Prophet Isaiah, centuries before, sang a song of hope for a people walking in darkness. He foretold a great light dawning upon those in a land of gloom. This light would shatter the yoke of oppression, for “a child is born to us, a son is given us.” This is no ordinary child. His names are a litany of divine power: Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His reign of endless peace would be established and upheld by God’s own zeal. This was the promise that Israel clutched to its heart through exile and hardship—a king of justice and peace was coming.

This cosmic promise finds its breathtakingly humble fulfillment in the Gospel of Luke. The Emperor Augustus issues a decree, unaware he is a pawn in a divine plan to bring a pregnant woman to Bethlehem. And there, in the stark simplicity of a stable, because there was no room for them in the inn, the promise is kept. “The infant lying in the manger” is the Child Isaiah foretold. The government is not on his tiny shoulders yet, but His identity is revealed from heaven itself to the most humble of society: shepherds. The angel announces, “Today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.” The titles of Isaiah find their meaning in this baby: He is the Counselor, the Hero, the eternal Father’s presence, the Prince of Peace. And the heavenly host proclaims the result of this event: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

The infinite God has become a finite child. The Word through whom all things were made cannot yet speak a word. As Pope Benedict XVI beautifully expressed, “God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only the heart of those who see their own poverty can understand him.”

But what does this mean for us now? Saint Paul provides the answer in his letter to Titus. “The grace of God has appeared,” he declares. The birth of Jesus is the visible, tangible appearance of God’s saving love. This grace is not passive; it “trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age.” The purpose of the manger is the transformation of our lives. We are called to live differently because we await a blessed hope: the glorious return of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. The baby in the manger is the same Christ who will return in glory, and the one who “gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own.”

This is the Catholic faith we celebrate tonight. Christmas is not a mere remembrance of a past event. It is the present, powerful in-breaking of God’s grace into our world and into our hearts. The same Christ who was born in Bethlehem desires to be born anew in the manger of our own souls, bringing His light to our personal darkness and His peace to our inner turmoil.

The comfort for us is overwhelming. No matter how deep our darkness—be it grief, sin, or despair—the light of Christ shines in it and cannot be overcome. The challenge is to make room for Him. The inn was full, but the stable was open. We must open the simple, perhaps messy, stables of our hearts to Him.

Let us, then, go to Bethlehem with the shepherds. Let us adore this holy Child, our Savior. Let us embrace the grace that has appeared, allowing it to train us in holy living. And let us carry this light from the manger into the shadows of our world, so that all may know the peace offered to those on whom His favor rests. Amen.

A blessed and radiant Christmas to you all!