{"id":202,"date":"2011-12-25T07:29:38","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T12:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=202"},"modified":"2011-12-29T07:33:06","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T12:33:06","slug":"the-joy-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=202","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Christmas Eve and Christmas<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

Westminster Towers<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

Is 9: 1-6; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

Deacon Larry Briockman\u00a0<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

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The waiting is over!\u00a0 <\/span>Christmas is upon us.\u00a0 <\/span>Do you feel the joy?\u00a0 <\/span>Not just the joy over the cards, the gifts, the lights, the decorations, the cookies, and all the glitter of the season; but the joy over the coming of the Lord.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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You know, each year the Church goes through a cycle that starts with Advent.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s the four week season that we just went through to prepare for the Lord\u2019s coming.\u00a0 <\/span>And then the Church year proceeds to celebrate Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary time in that order.\u00a0 <\/span>After that, the Church year starts all over again.\u00a0 <\/span>So, we all know that the Church year is symbolic, a reenactment on a yearly basis of the Christian salvation story that unfolded 2000 years ago.\u00a0 <\/span>As we celebrate Christmas, we commemorate the birth of the Christ Child and the joy of it.\u00a0 <\/span>It may not seem real to us- after all, it is a yearly reenactment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But you know what- Christmas can be real to us, and not just symbolic if\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>If we really take to heart the meaning of it all.\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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You see, Almighty God sent his only son into the world to become one of us; and to live as one of us.\u00a0 <\/span>He lived, he suffered, he died, and then He was resurrected; and he promised all of us who believe an everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 <\/span>If you really, really believe that- if it is an \u201caha\u201d experience to you, then it can only bring you the real joy of Christmas.\u00a0 <\/span>The cards and lights and cookies and gifts become the symbols; the joy of Christ\u2019s coming is what is real!\u00a0 <\/span>So, do you feel it- the joy?\u00a0 <\/span>And why would you feel joy over that?<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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In the second reading today, Paul sums up quite well what it is that we should be joyful over.\u00a0 <\/span>First- he speaks of the kindness and generous love of God for all of us.\u00a0 <\/span>Amen- God\u2019s love is first and foremost the source of our joy.\u00a0 <\/span>The God of the universe showed his love for all of us by sending Jesus to live amongst us and show us the way to salvation. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Paul is quick to point out that this love is unconditional, because it doesn\u2019t depend on any righteous deeds we have done.\u00a0 <\/span>And when you really think about it, this love is demonstrated in such a unique way.\u00a0 <\/span>You see, other religions look at God as \u201ctranscendent\u201d, a fancy word that means that God is high above us; so much above us that we cannot possibly have a personal relationship with Him.\u00a0 <\/span>But by Jesus becoming one of us, we know that God is available to us through His son, so available because he lived and related to people just like us.\u00a0 <\/span>He is still that available to us, because he gave us His body and Blood in the Eucharist.\u00a0 <\/span>We will all share in the Eucharist in just a few moments.\u00a0 <\/span>How wonderful is that!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Then, there is God\u2019s mercy.\u00a0 <\/span>Because no matter what we have done, if we have accepted his love for us, if we believe in Him, then God forgives us and will save us through rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s called the mercy of God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Next, there is the grace that comes with the Holy Spirit, the grace that all of us need to do God\u2019s will.\u00a0 <\/span>All of us are gifted with the Holy Spirit- \u00a0<\/span>Jesus promised us that He would send the Spirit.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s what our reenactment of Pentecost is all about.\u00a0 <\/span>And the Spirit pours out God\u2019s grace on all of us who have the Spirit within us.\u00a0 <\/span>We are justified by that grace, because God\u2019s grace is the great enabler we need to be the people he has chosen.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Lastly, we become heirs in the hope of eternal life, heirs to the same happiness that Jesus experiences in His resurrected state. \u00a0<\/span>And that happiness lasts forever.\u00a0 <\/span>It is like a fairy tale ending- we will \u201clive happily ever after.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Love, mercy, the Son, the Holy Spirit, grace, and the promise of eternal life- really, what more can we ask for than that.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, Christmas is the source of real joy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Christmas Eve and Christmas Westminster Towers Is 9: 1-6; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14 Deacon Larry Briockman\u00a0 The waiting is over!\u00a0 Christmas is upon us.\u00a0 Do you feel the joy?\u00a0 Not just the joy over the cards, the gifts, the lights, the decorations, the cookies, and all the glitter of the season; but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}