[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters! Today, on Christmas 1942, there is a great question troubling the souls of many earnest Christian believers: will the angels of Bethlehem still find a single spot on the face of the earth where they can land in peace and preach the Christmas gospel? Will they not be driven back by the many swords that have been drawn, will they be able to speak their message in the frenzy of battle? Often, almost imperceptibly, such questions undermine our faith: how can the Christmas gospel of peace and goodwill be reconciled with the total lack of peace and goodwill that we are witnessing everywhere? The reality of the situation and the Christmas gospel are two extremes, absolute opposites that are almost mutually exclusive. An insidious either-or question creeps into our hearts: either the message of Christmas peace is true, and it would have permeated the world for two millennia - or, if there is so little sign of the heavenly peace that descended with Christ, then the Christmas gospel has no power, or perhaps it is not true at all!I do not seek to defend the cause of God against such and such ruminations, for the God who creates and governs the world does not need our human opinions - I merely say, to reassure our wavering faith, that the Word read answers those very ruminations first. I repeat, emphasizing one word in particular: "God, having raised up His Son Jesus Christ FIRST, sent Him to bless you, converting you all from your sins." It is true that this Word has been proclaimed on nearly two thousand Christmas festivals; it is true that the Christmas Gospel could have permeated the hearts and souls of people around the world since then; it is true that flowers of peace and goodwill could have beautified the face of the earth since then: if people had understood the part of the Christmas message I have been emphasising for two thousand years: that it is primarily for you! For two thousand years, this world has been entranced by the song of the angels of Bethlehem. They have written Christmas oratorios about it, made it a recital in concert halls, softened their souls with emotion by the glittering Christmas tree, proclaimed, praised, glorified the fact that God sent His holy Son into the world - but they have consistently forgotten what the Christmas Gospel so strongly emphasises: that He was 'born to you', sent primarily to you.
Imagine, Brother, that you wanted to give your child great joy. You would like to give him a gift that you know he has been waiting for, and you yourself are preparing and looking forward to the surprise. And when you give him the gift you have worked so hard to get, your child will say, with a moody expression, that he doesn't want it, that he is not happy at all. Or, even sadder, if he pretends to be happy, but you see through him and sense that his joy is just a subtle veneer, and that deep down he is cold to your gift. Oh, how ungrateful of a child to complain, moreover, that he has a heartless father who will not give of his wealth to his poor wretched son... Or imagine yourself, my brother, a rich gentleman sitting in a palace, who wants to entertain your relatives and acquaintances, you prepare a huge, expensive feast for them, you stand at the gate to receive them with warm kinsman kisses, and - no one comes, everything was in vain, and after a few days you hear that not only did the invited guests not come, but they complain from ear to ear that they have starved to death. The world has been behaving in a similar way towards the Christmas Gospel for two thousand years, even today.
But let us not talk about the world, but about me and you, my Brother. Is it not fitting that we should know that we have received a great gift from God at Christmas in the person of Jesus Christ, and that we should rejoice and give thanks, but is it not hypocrisy that this is our Christmas? Do you really rejoice in the gift, do you really consider Christ to be your most precious treasure, because God intended him to be so. and He sees into you, my brother, and understands in you whether, in the depths of your soul, you are happy or cold by His gift.
The Scripture says that God sent His Son, first of all to raise you, to bless you. So the greatest blessing of God upon us is that He sent Jesus Christ. It was something like an act of grace, a fact of grace on God's part, like the mother of a helpless baby bird that has fallen from the nest, coming down to take it back to the good, soft, warm, safe nest. The incarnation of God in the person of Jesus on earth means that from beyond, from the world of God from which we have fallen out, a bridge has been built that reaches down to the sinful depths of human hearts. Which, therefore, reconnects earth with heaven, man with God, time, the ephemeral with eternity, and by which we may be launched back into the free, happy, glorious world of God! God's Christmas gift, Jesus Christ, means that you can enter the kingdom of God right now, where peace, goodwill, love and justice truly reign among men - and enter heaven after death, where God awaits you after your earthly wanderings in His glory. Behold, all this is made possible by Christ, and therefore the greatest blessing of God upon us is Jesus Christ.
And then most people, like a child at Christmas, ask and expect from the Lord a different kind of blessing, a different kind of gift: happiness, earthly happiness, money, wealth, health, and they do not need the gift that God has given, the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ! It is no use having a rich feast if no one sits down to the table, no use having the greatest gift if no one wants to accept it as his own. It is in vain to build a bridge from over there to here if no one wants to step on it from here, it is in vain to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven if no one wants to enter through them - and then this stubborn, obstinate child, mankind, you and I, blame God for our hunger, for our poverty, for the lack of peace and goodwill among us. It is not the Christmas Gospel that has lost its power and relevance - for even God's Christmas message of joy is useless if no one wants to hear that it is addressed to Him, to Him alone, to Him alone, as the Word emphasises: 'God, having raised up His Son Jesus Christ as your firstborn, sent Him to bless you'! But if there is no one to receive this blessing, how can peace and goodwill be realized on earth!
Have you accepted it? To the extent that you have not accepted this Christmas gift from God, to that extent are you individually responsible for the world's unrest and misery. To the extent that a person accepts Jesus Christ, to that extent does he contribute to the betterment of the world in general. So let us not pass judgment on the wickedness of men in general, much less on the powerlessness or reality of God's Christmas gospel, for all judgment comes back to us in a sixfold degree and judges us. If today, in every family and in every heart that calls itself Christian, there were a true Christmas celebration - a true rejoicing in the blessing of God in Christ - then surely today the angelic song would be louder than the noise of battle!
But that is why the Christmas Gospel can never be more relevant than today, we need nothing more than the blessing of God in Christ! And this means that each one of us personally accepts as a reality that God has sent His holy Son precisely for him. We are even willing to believe that God sent Jesus into this world, but it is difficult to accept that it was for me. I.e. it obliges me to do something, it takes me out of the comfortable state of idle contemplation, irresponsible celebration, and a relaxed mood bath, and forces me to change many things in my life. For God did not send His holy Son to be entertained in His life and death as a divine spectacle, but as our Word says, He sent Him to... convert each of you from your sins. The great event that we celebrate today, the coming of Christ to earth, was not so that there would be no more noise in the world. Nor was it so that there might be a day when we can light a candle on the Christmas tree and give our children a beautiful gift - but solely so that you and you and you and I might be converted from our sins! Without that, the first Christmas Eve was in vain, and this one is in vain too! Christmas today especially, if we do not want it to remain a passing mood for us this year, must become a celebration of repentance in our lives!
It was also a day of conversion in the lives of the shepherds. They were hardly different from the shepherds of today, who, far from village, town and church, live almost a whole life in the fields among animals. They cared little for anything but their flock, perhaps not even for God, and behold, as soon as they sensed how much God cared for them, and indeed cared for them: they set out for Bethlehem in dreamy wonder, and fell on their knees before Jesus Christ lying in the manger. Working men with bare hands, who care nothing for religion, bow down before Christ!
So begins conversion for you too. You who have sought God only out of habit or propriety, but otherwise have not cared for Him seriously: feel how much He cares for you, how He is arranging the whole Christmas miracle for you, and bow down before Christ who is coming down for you, and worship Him, glorify Him!
We read further that "the shepherds returned from Bethlehem, praising and glorifying God for all that they had heard and seen." (Lk 2,20) They returned to their ordinary lives, but with such experiences in their souls that their weekday was no longer the same old weekday. The terse, rude, crude people whose mouths were set on blasphemy: they learn to praise and glorify God. Poor, broken people give up grumbling, complaining, discontent, and their hearts are filled with gratitude. Their bitter hearts become hearts of rejoicing. Their songs of praise will ring out as they return home from Bethlehem.
Yes, that will be the unfailing sign of conversion for you too: this great transformation of your words, your emotions, your actions, this almost change of heart, this constant, exultant testimony of your life that you have seen the Lord! In a few days, the ordinary day will come again for you, but if you have really had Christmas, it will no longer be the same old ordinary day, new life forces will be set in motion in you, which will make the pure, heavenly air of peace and goodwill in your life a reality. You do not expect the world to realise peace and goodwill, but you show it to the world in your life. Only then can Christmas come in the life of the world, i.e. through you, by you!
Today, on Christmas 1942, let us not fear the angels of Christmas, where they find a place to land. It was no better two thousand years ago. We read that a census had just been ordered by the Roman emperor. This was just a preparation for another tax levy. The hearts of the oppressed were filled with fierce hatred of the oppressors and hostility. They went to the tax census gnashing their teeth and secretly shaking their fists. It was into this money-chasing, riotous, oppressive and revolutionary world that the angels of Bethlehem first came with the joyous good news of Christmas, because there were people, a few simple shepherds, who understood that the heavenly message was for them! Even in today's war-torn world, and even in this world, the angelic message is being heard, if only there were people who understood that it was for them, that Christmas was for them!
That is why, my brothers and sisters, on this Christmas holiday, I can do nothing else but proclaim loudly the Christmas Gospel which the Lord has entrusted to me: 'God, having raised up his Son Jesus Christ as your first fruits, sends him to bless you, converting you all from your sins.'
I emphasize again that God sent His Son first of all to you, or in other words, first of all to you and me. Blessed be His holy Name!
Amen.
Date: 25 December 1942 (Christmas)
Lesson
Lk 2,1-20