Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Andriy Mykytyuk on the Sunday before Christmas
December 23, 2023
Christ is born… He comes to lift us up, to raise us to heaven, and to restore to us the dignity of being called children of God. He is born as a child so that we can become children of God again.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Beloved,
On this Sunday, we commemorate the Holy Fathers and also celebrate Christmas Eve.
Listening to this long Gospel with lists of names, we may find it strange. After all, why listen to these three groups of names every year, which are unfamiliar and far from us? I think this is a good question. Because these names should not be distant and unfamiliar. These names should be close to us. Why? Because when we read the Old Testament, we will meet all these names and see what these people did in their lives.
We remember the Patriarchs, from Abraham to David. Abraham, who listened to God, believed in Him, trusted Him, and followed God, became the father of many nations. And his descendants showed that God is faithful in his promises, but man must also be faithful to God.
Next, we see the period of the kings, those who ruled the people. They were different; some were good, others did not do well and deviated from God’s ways. But the history and the “plan” of Salvation continued.
The third group of people whose names are really unknown, and we will not find them in the Holy Scriptures, but the evangelist shows us this endurance. He shows that God fulfills His promise through history. God is faithful to His word and is preparing the whole world for salvation.
Christ is born… as the evangelist Matthew says, quoting the prophet Isaiah, that the Virgin has conceived and will give birth to a son and will name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” It is really very important for us to understand that God is with us. He comes to lift us up, to raise us to heaven, and to restore to us the dignity of being called children of God. He is born as a child so that we can become children of God again.
So it’s important to see it all on this Sunday. Look at these people, look at their lives. Take the example of a good relationship with God. Look at people who did bad deeds, and do not do the same.
Christ is born to be with us. God is born to be with us. Do we want to be with Him?
On this one day that is left before the bright feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, let’s use the opportunity to think about it. To see how much in my life, I can see that this little, newborn child Jesus is important to me. In all this chaos of preparation “for the Holidays,” I do not forget the most important: God is born in Bethlehem, but He wants to be born in my heart.
So, listening to the names of all these people, let’s follow a good example, avoid evil, put Christ first in our lives, believe in Him, trust Him, and follow Him to the end. He is faithful to his promise. He made a promise and fulfilled it. So we have to try and learn to be faithful to Him in order to follow Him to the Heavenly Kingdom. Amen.
