Cedric Pisegna - Christmas
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Welcome to «Live with Passion,» I’m Father Cedric Pisegna, this is a special episode, a Christmas episode. Merry Christmas to you all. Want to proclaim to you what we proclaim at the Midnight Mass, if you’re Catholic, comes from Isaiah chapter 9, «The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined. For the yoke of his burden, the staff for his shoulder, the rod of the oppressor, you have smashed, as on the day of Midian». A blessed Christmas to you all, I love that song, «This is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,» and it’s so true, it is the most wonderful time of the year because Jesus Christ has been born for all of us, for everybody, whether you go to church or not.
And I pray that you will experience his grace. People travel thousands of miles to be with friends and families, the airports are jammed with people at this time of year because you want to be with family, you want to be with friends, but even if you aren’t, you can still have a merry Christmas. There’s shopping, there’s eating, people making cookies, people baking cakes, of course, there’s gift giving, caroling, gatherings in churches all around the world, people singing «Joy to the World,» and then of course, Christmas trees and music. I love Christmas music on the radio, I put that on right after Thanksgiving, it gets me in the mood. There’s all kinds of different colored lights and malls are all decked out, Santa and the reindeer and gifts galore.
Why all this festivity, why all the travel, why all this merriment? Because we believe that God from God, light from light, true God from true God, that’s right from the Nicene Creed. The Word became flesh, God himself came among us so that we could have something real, so that we could understand what life is, and we could experience the forgiveness of our sins, the gift of eternal life. You know, John 3:16, you’ve all heard that, «For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever,» you and me, «Whosoever believes may not perish but have eternal life,» that’s the meaning of Christmas, it’s not hard to understand, it’s not rocket science, a child can understand this, in fact, sometimes a child understands it more than adults do.
That’s why we have all this festivity, our calendar is divided between BC and AD, before Christ and year of our Lord, Christmas is, in a way, the divider of our calendar, even warring nations declare a truce on this day. They honor the Prince of Peace and the fact that Christ has come, and there are concerts, Nutcracker Suite, Handel’s Messiah, movies, like «It’s a Wonderful Life,» with Jimmy Stewart, Dickens’s «A Christmas Carol,» one of my favorites, Dolly Parton, Amy Grant’s Christmas. Parades, Frosty the Snowman, Charlie Brown’s Christmas. All this because of the true meaning of Christmas that is Jesus. Festivity, lights, people, travel, music, eating, festivity, the foretaste of what is to come in heaven. And heaven will be this great celebration because of God’s love.
If you ever wanna enter the kingdom of God, this is what Jesus said, you gotta become like a little child. And if you’ve ever seen a child on Christmas morning, they’re excited, they’re anticipating, they’re expecting, they don’t just kind of nicely take scissors and kind of cut away nicely and keep the ribbon and the bow, they rip it open, they tear it open, and they receive that gift. And that’s really what Christmas is about. We can learn as adults from children about receiving Jesus, tearing open the gift, having it for yourself. Jesus is the reason for the season. Jesus’s name, the angel gave it to him, means, «God saves». God saves us from our sins, and God saves us for eternity. It’s not just that a child was born to us, as beautiful as that is, but Jesus was born to us for a reason.
Fulton Sheen, one of the great bishops and preachers in our Catholic church, said, «Jesus was the only person ever born to die». We’re all born to die, but Jesus was expressly born to die. And the reason why he was born so that we could have our sins taken away and come to eternal life through his passion. It’s all about the passion, that’s the core, that’s the crux of Christianity. But on this great day, we rejoice that Jesus has been born and we have great merriment and great joy. Although, I have to be real, and if you’ve tuned into my programs before, you know, I try to preach about real issues in real life. As you know, along with the festivities, Christmas time is the saddest time of the year for many people.
Loneliness, not everybody has a family to go to, especially if you’re older, you’ve lost family, you’ve lost a spouse. It can be hard, and speaking of losing a spouse, grieving. This may be your first Christmas without your spouse or without a child, without somebody that you love, and it’s devastating, it’s hard, but you can do it. Jesus came to lift us up, he came to bring us eternal life, but he came to be our rock, our strength, even now, and you can grieve, you can be lonely, you can get through this. Jesus didn’t exempt us from everything, he said, in the world, you will have tribulation but cheer up, I have overcome the world. See, instead of being overwhelmed, you can be an overcomer.
That’s why Jesus came to help us now and to bring us eternal life, of course. There’s stress. Traffic, have you ever seen the traffic around the mall, I avoid that at all costs. Traffic, the hustle and the bustle, the deadlines for buying gifts, did you get all your Christmas cards done? Cooking meals, the post office is jammed with people, it’s just a stressful time. Christmas happens, of course, in the winter in the northern hemisphere and during the winter, there’s cold and snow and darkness and it’s the shortest days of the year. This is something called the SAD syndrome, Seasonal Affective Disorder, where people get down because of the weather. It can be hard, there’s canceled flights, people get sad.
And then of course, economic problems, not everybody can buy gifts for their children, not everybody’s got that kind of money, that’s when the Giving Tree at church is really popular, and I appreciate all the people that give to the Giving Tree and people buy gifts, Toys for Tots, hopefully you’re generous at this time of year. But a lot of people are going through hard times. I don’t wanna belabor that point, but it’s very real, and if you are, glad you’ve tuned in, as I said, Jesus came for you too, to lift you up, to get you through this, to bring you forward, but most of all, to deepen your relationship with him, and for you to have eternal life, yes. One psychologist said, we’re supposed to be cheerful but forced happiness has the opposite effect, it makes us sad and lonely because we’re faking it.
Well, hopefully you don’t have to fake it, and I think the saddest people of all aren’t just those who are grieving and lonely, it’s those who really don’t know who Jesus is and they’re going through this Christmas experience and they really don’t understand who Jesus is. That’s the saddest of all, but you must understand, whether you know Jesus or not, he came for you. Comes for the marginalized, for outcasts, for people that don’t know God, that’s what Christmas is and that’s why all people celebrate, hopefully. Even if you don’t go to church and if you don’t know God, this is for you too, you are included, you belong. Simply believe, «For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes».
That’s why I’m so glad you tuned into this program. Whatever you’re going through, whoever you are, whatever your experience is, it says, in the second reading, Paul to Titus, this is from Midnight Mass, «The grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all». You could be going through a divorce, indulging in an addiction, how can Jesus love me when I’m doing this? Filled with doubt or confusion, doubt toward Jesus, doubt toward God, I’m not sure this is just some cultural event. This is just something that society puts on, maybe you’re just thinking that. Maybe you’re not going to church lonely, stressed, as I said, grieving, Jesus came for you, the grace of God… you know what grace is? It’s God’s initiative, it’s God’s free gift, it’s God’s blessing, you don’t deserve it, you can’t earn it, but you can receive it. Simply believe, even if it’s hard for you to believe, simply believe right now, just trust that this is for you.
This is how anybody that becomes a believer, anybody that’s a disciple of Jesus, you have to start small somewhere. Faith starts as a tiny mustard seed. Simply believe and watch what will happen, it’ll grow. Grace is God’s gift, «For God so loved the world,» John 3:16. «That he gave,» that’s what love is, it’s a giving thing. That’s what you parents do at Christmas, you give to your children, and you give all year long, of course, that’s what love is. One of my favorite songs is «Joy to the World,» the Lord has come. There’s gotta be joy, even if you’re distant from the church, you know that there is a God, he does love us, and it creates joy in our heart.
Joy to the world, the Lord has come, I remember one time I was with a singer, he’s a Catholic singer, John Michael Talbot, his wife, some other people, we went to a nursing home and we sang Christmas carols. There was about eight of us, we went together. John Michael Talbot is a great singer, I was privileged to be with him, and we sang these Christmas carols and the people were sitting there in their chairs and I don’t know if all of them were with it, but it brought them joy, just hearing that music. There’s something about memory that brings you back to your childhood and singing «Joy to the World» and «Silent Night» and «Oh, Come All Ye Faithful» and all these beautiful songs, and it brought joy to us.
That’s the thing, remember what Jesus said, he said, it’s better to give than to receive. And that’s what we do in the Christmas season, we give and it brings joy, giving brings joy. That’s part of the Christmas festivities… why do we give gifts? Why do we open them? We’re celebrating what God did for us, «God gave his only begotten son». And so we give gifts to mimic that, to show that we too can give. We honor God by giving, because that’s what love is. The early church father said, and this is the meaning of Christmas, «God became man so that man could become God,» let me inclusive-ize that, God became a human so that humans could become God, does that make us God? No, it divinizes us, we become children of God.
And that’s why Jesus came, he became one of us so that we could become divine, he became human, so that we could become like God. He fills us with the Holy Spirit, divinizes us. This is the meaning of Christmas, it’s not just a cultural event where we go to the mall and buy all these gifts, and then the day after Christmas throw the tree away and that’s that, in fact, in the Christmas season, in the Catholic church, lasts for two weeks or longer, up until the Baptism of the Lord. We have time to soak in the mystery, to receive the gift that is Jesus. It’s important to understand that Jesus came to divinize us, to help us to become like God. First reading of Midnight Mass, I want to break open the Word for you.
Second reading, I talk about the grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all people, the scriptures are telling us what Christmas means. And it’s for all people, first reading talked about, and I read that at the beginning of the episode, comes from Isaiah chapter 9, it’s very perplexing, reading for years, I didn’t understand it until I studied for this episode. «For the yoke that has burdened them, you have smashed as on the day of Midian». The day of Midian, what are we talking about the day of Midian on Christmas for?
Well as I studied, I found out this comes from Judges, the book of Judges chapter 7. The Midianites were warring against the Hebrews, against the Israelites and the Israelites were totally outnumbered. The Midianites were like locusts, there were so many of them, like sand on the sea shore. And God told them, them being the Hebrews, to narrow it down to 300 men to fight against the Midianites, this huge vast locust, sand on the seashore throng. Narrow it down to 300 men with no weapons. So they were few and they didn’t have any knives or any way to attack. He wanted, God, he wanted to be sure that they knew that the only way that they could win the battle was with God’s help and they did win the battle.
The enemy, when they blew the trumpets, became confused, they turned on each other and the Hebrews won the battle in the power of God. They overcame through God’s grace. You see, Christmas is all about what God does for us that we can’t do for ourselves. You must understand that. The burden that we all have, as a human race, the yoke that is upon all of us, is death. There is no way any one of us can have victory over death without God’s help, that’s exactly why Jesus was born and that’s why we have that reading at Midnight Mass, first reading from the prophet Isaiah.
«You have smashed the yoke that burdened us, as on the day of Midian». Remember what God did, narrowed it down to 300, didn’t give 'em any weapons, and he won the battle for 'em, in the same way, we can’t conquer death. Nobody has ever done it except Jesus, and that’s exactly why he came. He tasted death on behalf of all of us to give us victory, to give us joy, to overcome death, so that we don’t have to be overwhelmed. Eventually, we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us. So the yoke that burdens us is death. What’s Christmas all аbout: victory, life, eternal life.
I know there’s a lot of festivities and a lot of football games and parades and all that kind of thing, it can cloud the meaning of the whole thing. Number one that God loves us. Number two, that he wants to lift us up. Number three, and this is the most important one, he gives us victory over death. That’s why we sing, that’s why the angels sing, joy to the world, peace on earth to people of goodwill, glory to God in the highest. That’s what we sing at every mass, «The Gloria». Paul the apostle put it this way, he knew Jesus in a personal way, and he said this in one of his letters, I believe it was 1 Corinthians, «Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ».
Wow, sometimes you gotta be a little audacious and point death in the face and say, I’m a believer, I’m an overcomer, I am gonna conquer death. This is for all people, whether you go to church or not, and I believe that as you come to a deeper faith, you will come to church, celebrate this, get this deep down in your soul. This Christmas can be life changing for you, totally change things for you, simply believe. Look at the world’s situation right now. There’s a war going on, our economy is struggling, nation is in debt, trillions of dollars in debt, humanitarian crisis at our borders, the United States, the world is a mess. Why do we celebrate Christmas, because we believe that the King of Kings was born, the Lord of Lords was born.
Love what the scriptures say, «One day, he’s gonna come again in glory and his reign, his rule will be forever and ever and ever. This is the king that God has given us, a king in the line of David, the son of David, a just king, a king who will judge correctly, a king that will bring justice to the nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. We will come and walk in the light of the Lord,» that’s one of the readings at Christmas Mass also. The gospel reading, gospel reading, no room at the inn, from the Gospel of Luke. Remember Joseph and Mary, they’re looking for a place as they come to Bethlehem, and there’s no room at the inn.
And I keep thinking, who is the innkeeper in the story? Of course, it was 2,000 years ago, the innkeeper is you and me, and the scriptures are asking us, do you have room in your heart for him? And the bottom line is, is for Christmas to have any kind of meaning at all, we must make room for Jesus to be born again in our hearts. He was born so that we could be reborn, and as you make room for Jesus in your heart, because when I hear that story, I always go, that innkeeper had no clue what could have happened if he had just let Mary and Joseph into that inn. There was no room there and they had to go to a manger, as you know, when he was born among animals. The same way, if you just simply make room, that’s what faith is. Make some room for Jesus, give him room in your heart, and watch what happens. He will lift you up, whatever you’re going through, divorce or grieving or loneliness or hardship or fear, he brings new life.
That’s the meaning of Christmas, too. Who were the first ones to find out about his birth, was it the high priest in Jerusalem? All this religion, all this glamour, all this prestige. No, was it the scribes, was it the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, they were a religious group at Israel at that time. Was it King Herod and all the royal people? No. Wealthy people? No. First ones that found out about it, about the birth of Jesus, smelly shepherds in their field. Very poor, remember the angels, a savior has been born to you, Christ the Lord. They saw the glory of the Lord, you know what that tells me?
Tells me that you may not be rich or talented or politically inclined or even religious, but Jesus came for you. He comes for the marginalized, for the broken, for the poor. That is all over the place in the Gospels. And he also comes for the wealthy and the politically inclined and the rich and those who have it together, who are talented. He comes for all, remember, the grace of God has appeared for all, simply come, believe, make room in your heart, and you too will have joy, joy to the world. Receive him. This time of year we hear a song, Handel’s Messiah song.
Lord of Lords, they sing, great triumph. Lots of trumpets, the orchestra blares out, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, hallelujah, hallelujah. He shall reign forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah. He comes to lift us up, to bring us through the addictions, the loneliness, the grieving, the hardships, the stress, and especially those who don’t know him, he comes to bring faith. Faith isn’t something that you inherit. It’s something every one of us has to be responsible for, for our own personal life. Every believer has come to faith on their own, and you too, if you don’t believe, simply believe, make room for him in in your heart and watch what happens.
And then no matter what difficulties you face, he was born for you, and that’s why we sing, «Joy to the World». That’s why this is the merriest time of the year, because, «God so loved the world,» you and me, «That he gave his only begotten son». And that’s what love is, love gives. And that’s what we celebrate at Christmas, that whosoever, the grace of God has appeared for all people, whosoever believes, simply believe, may not perish but may have everlasting life. «Joy to the World,» I wish you the merriest of Christmases. May you be blessed, may you sense Jesus love for you on this wonderful day, and don’t just live, live with passion. May almighty God bless you. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.