“Father Mohan, and I wish you all a very merry Christmas. You know, when we say Merry Christmas to someone or we, somebody says Merry Christmas to us if we’re honest with ourselves, usually what we think about are things like good food and, you know, good times with family and friends, good conversations and all of those are great things that we’ve received from God, but really, today is a good time to reflect on why we have these celebrations in the first place and the reason we do is because of that greatest act of love ever and that’s God becoming human so that we can become like God in heaven and this is God who is all knowing and all powerful and all goodness condescending to our level. He didn’t do this for his own benefit. He did this totally for our benefit. He did this so that we could be happy with him forever in heaven. This Jesus becoming humanity called the incarnation, it’s not something that we ever merited. It’s not something we earned. So it was not an act of justice on God’s part. It was an act of pure mercy. The manner that Jesus became human is remarkable. Of course, you all know he was born amidst animals, rotten straw and dirt and manure and all of that is symbolic of Jesus coming into our lives and being present in our lives even in the messiness and the dirtiness of our lives and that’s where we need him. He continues to be present with us mystically, always, and he’s physically present for us in the Eucharist and he does all of that so that this life on Earth isn’t our endgame. Our endgame is a happiness that we can’t even imagine, and it lasts forever and we know all this intellectually. We’re challenged to really know in our hearts. And when we can really know it in our hearts, the good times become great times and the hard times become bearable and that’s the joy that we all strive for as Christians on this beautiful Christmas Day.”