Merry Christmas, everyone! May God bless you in a very special way. Jesus Christ is born! He is Wonder Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace! He is Emmanuel, “God is with us!” And yet, Jesus is also our brother and advocate. By His birth, He fulfills the promises of God, that He would send us a savior. Jesus is God incarnate. He is the Word of God made human. This is a great mystery of our faith and a great blessing to our souls.

I pray this will be a beautiful Christmas for you and your family.
As you gather, I hope you will feel the sense of just how important each person is in your life. And I hope they appreciate how important you are as well! We are precious players to each other, each of us with a role to play for a time. So have some fun and enjoy each other. Time with family is often underrated. Think of it this way: when you recall your favorite Christmases past, no one ever thinks about how this or that team did or what was the latest movie or toy. What we do remember is how young the children were or how close Grandma squeezed us or that delicious meal. These are things that we remember because it’s all about the people that matter.

Naturally, Jesus was told about the day of His birth by Joseph and Mary. The angels. The Shepherds. The three mysterious men who came to visit. I suppose they also told Jesus about some of the less pleasant things like the cold, the smell of the animals and the rejection at the inn. Imagine if that innkeeper had found room for the Holy Family. He would be the patron saint of hospitality workers. Think of how many churches would be named for him!

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of spending time with several other priests from around the country to see the work of the Catholic Extension Society in El Paso, Texas, right on the southern border.  These days were some of the most inspirational of my priesthood.

We met a sister from Belgium who was in the resistance during World War II.  Later, she ministered in Argentina and Paraguay during the dictatorships in those countries.  She had some harrowing experiences.  She is now 91, having started her current ministry in El Paso at age 80.  We met a Franciscan priest who at age 91 is ministering to indigenous people who are Catholic but still maintain some of their old traditions.  These are just a couple examples of melding cultures.

We had a special insight into this on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We met Bishop Mark Seitz who has done heroic work in trying to help immigrants, some of whom walked 3,000 miles to come to America.  Many look through the border wall only to see the freedom they long for.

It would be impossible not to connect the dots between the Christmas story and the issues at the border. Setting aside the political issues, we cannot help but recognize the humanity of each person and see how their stories are not terribly different from the stories of our
own families.

So today is all about families — the families God gave us, the family we create, our family of faith, the human family. All of these link us together in the beautiful tapestry of God’s Family, where all are welcome, all are loved and all share in our mutual humanity. Many these and many other blessings come to you as we celebrate Christmas together.

Merry Christmas!