Jesus desires with all of His heart to come and make our hearts a place where he can be born again and where he can dwell again.

Homily on Luke 2: 1-14--Christmas Day with Midnight readings
Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord! This evening (today) we gather together to rejoice and celebrate with the whole world the coming of the Infant Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem. For the past four weeks of advent, we have been preparing for this wonderful celebration with great longing and anticipation. And now our hearts are filled with great wonder and joy as we journey to the poor stable at Bethlehem and see there lying the little baby Jesus, He who is our Divine Savior. God as a baby, just imagine...
Some of you may be familiar with the comic the Family Circus, but maybe you didn’t know that Jeff Keene the writer is Catholic. A few years ago, Mr. Keene had a wonderful comic at Christmas time; it is one of my favorite comics of all times. I actually have it framed. In the comic, little Jeffrey is sitting in the church pew trying to pray to God; above Jeffery is a thought bubble in which he, Jeffery is thinking about God. He pictures God as an Old Man standing on a throne surrounded by all kind of angels and saints. Little Jeffery is shaking out of fear as he imagines God as this Majestic powerful Old Man looking down on him as he tries to prays.
The next picture shows little Jeffery at home trying to pray again. This time however, he gets an ideal. He tries to pray again, but this time he prays while thinking about baby Jesus laying his crib. The little baby Jesus is smiling and holding out his hands reaching toward Jeffery. In the next picture, Jeffery says to his mother, “It much easier to pray, when your prayin ta baby Jesus.
And so it is. Isn't it true, we put our guard down around babies. We can be sitting next to someone while we wait in a doctor's office and usually never talk to them. But if they have a baby we will look at the baby and strike up a conversion with the mother or father. Babies remove our inhibitions.
And when we encounter little babies doesn't it become very easy for us to become like little children ourselves. We even begin to act like them, speaking to them in baby talk, gibberish; and we do this in public around other people. It immediately becomes easy and natural for us to accept the love from infants, so we try to become like them. We let down our guard and simply love the infant, just like a child would do.
Is it not a Joy we experience when we encounter a newborn baby? Does not the newborn bring a smile on everyone’s face? Do we not immediately want to speak to the infant and hold and cuddle him? Some say to look into the face of baby is the closest thing on this earth to seeing the face of God; so pure, so innocent, so unaffected by the concerns and cares of this world..
Did God possibly come to us as a tiny little child because the Joy of Christmas is about receiving the gift of God like a child? In fact, the gift of God is Jesus. Jesus is the gift. And we need to be like children to receive Him.
However, Jesus is given to us as a gift, not just two thousand years ago, not just in the future when he comes again, But He is given as a gift to us now, anew, tonight (today) at this Holy Mass; and not just spiritually into our hearts, but actually, really and truly in His body and soul, with His human heart beating for love of us. The gift of God at Christmas is really the gift of the Eucharist and the Eucharist is Jesus, God become flesh, become Man. The Eucharist is the Father's gift to us, the gift of His Son.
The simple faith and love of children teaches us much about how we need to receive Jesus today. Jesus desires with all of His heart to come and make our hearts a place where he can be born again and where he can dwell again. He desires our hearts to be a new stable just like at Bethlehem. He implores everyone of us here tonight (today) to not be like the Innkeeper with no room, but instead He asks us to like little children--hearts open to receive the Christ child into our lives, not just at Christmas, but every single day for the rest of our lives. Tonight He comes to you as an infant so you won't be afraid, He is smiling at each one of you as he reaches out to you to embrace Him and open your hearts in faith to him.
Jesus reminds us that only in the spirit and attitude of little children can we receive the infant Jesus…only with the purity and innocence of little Children can we receive Him fully…Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Today, let us risk opening our hearts. Jesus the all powerful God comes to us hidden as the little Divine child and He tells us simply to, “Be not afraid.” When we receive Holy Communion-Which is Jesus the Christ child hidden in all of His majesty and glory coming to us, in us, let us receive Him and allow Him to love us and transform us into true children of the Father, our hearts the living stable of Bethlehem.
If we open our hearts to Him, we will discover that the coming of Jesus as a Man, is more than something we are told is supposed to have happen two thousand years ago, we will find that He is still Man today, and He is still with us every bit as much as He was two thousand years ago. With hearts like little children we will find it easy to believe that Jesus is truly and really in the little white host we adore after we hear those beautiful words at this Mass, “This is my Body, this is my Blood. Our hearts and minds will be filled with incredible awe and wonder faced with such a incredible and magnificent mystery. We will not only want to be with Him but even more we will want Him to be with us, in us. We will begin to long with all of our being to receive Him in Holy Communion every single week, as often as we possibly can. This is the essence of Christmas and it is not too good to be true; it is true, come let us adore our God in the Holy Eucharist born again for us this day, on this altar of Sacrifice.
May each of us find new intimacy with the Child Jesus today and every day of our lives. Holy Mary, Mother of the Divine infant, help us to become like little Children so we can welcome your Divine Child fully into our hearts, souls, minds, into our very lives. Amen.
Merry Christmas!