Please read this passage before reading the homily.
What’s new? It is a new year, but what is new? Shepherds are amazed, but perhaps they have always been amazing. They went in haste to Bethlehem as Mary had gone in haste to the hill country to visit Elizabeth. They go in haste, but they do not hurry. They do not hurry because they are digesting what has happened. In haste in the context of this reading seems to describe movement that is filled with joy. Mary is filled with joy; the shepherds are filled with joy; the infant in the manger brings joy.
Mystery fills every birth. How can a baby be born; what is the mystery of the nine months? The birth of Jesus is mystery like every other’s birth, but the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus add more mystery to the birth.
Jesus is born into a Jewish family: he is circumcised on the eighth day. The Jewish nation produces a savior of the world. Do we ever think to thank Jewish people for the millennia they have spent waiting for the Messiah. They still patiently await the One whom we believe has come. Their patience is cause for rejoicing. Can we wait thousands of years for the fulness of the promises God has made.
It is our belief that from an unknown and little-regarded insignificant place, in a world without electricity, internet, or jet planes, amid dreams and visions of angels, not far from shepherds or traveling camels from the east, the answer to all problems and the savior of all sinners was born into our time. Scripture says that Mary kept all these things pondering them in her heart. Should we not be doing the same, seeking to understand the mystery of birth and life?