31 décembre 2024 - 7^ème jour dans l’Octave de Noël

1 Jn 2, 18-21 ; Jn 1, 1-18

H o m é l i e

           Nous arrivons au dernier jour de l’Octave de Noël.

           Le nom de cette fête de Noël dans nos livres liturgiques en latin est "Nativitas Domini", qui se traduit par « naissance du Seigneur ». Cependant, ce que nous célébrons n'est pas le 2021^ème anniversaire de la naissance de Jésus. Ce que nous célébrons est quelque chose de plus important. C'est le fait même que Dieu s'est fait homme.

31 December 2024 - 7th day in the Octave of Christmas

1 Jn 2, 18-21; Jn 1, 1-18

Homily

               We have reached the last day of the Octave of Christmas.

               The name of this feast of Christmas in our Latin liturgical books is ‘Nativitas Domini’, which translates as ‘birth of the Lord’. However, what we are celebrating is not the 2021st anniversary of the birth of Jesus. What we are celebrating is something more important. It is the very fact that God became man.

Christmas is not just a celebration of a past event. It is the celebration of the present presence of God's incarnate glory among us and in us. Christmas is the feast of God's birth, of God's humanity and of God's history.

1) Feast of the birth of God: obviously, because he was born of the Virgin Mary two thousand years ago. But also because he is born today in each one of us. In Jesus, God did not simply become man. He became a man. All of humanity, every human being, has been transformed, made capable of being deified by God's grace.

2) Feast of the humanity of God: Christmas is therefore also the feast of our human nature. It is the feast of the dignity of human nature, called to be in each person a dwelling place and manifestation of the glory of God.

3) A celebration of the history of God. Our God, the God revealed in Jesus Christ, is not an abstract concept, an impassive God, eternally unchanging, affected by nothing, beyond time and space. Our God has decided to have an existence in time, has decided to share in human history, and He continues His historical existence in each one of us.

God's history, like all history, is unpredictable. We are called to be a people of spiritual nomads, like the Israelites in the desert during the Exodus, always looking to the glory of God in the cloud that accompanied them on their journey. When the cloud moved, they set off. When the cloud stopped, they set up their tents.

On this Christmas Day, let us do as the shepherds of Bethlehem did. May the glory of God surround us and penetrate us, so that all our nights are transformed into the light of hope under the warm rays of the sun of justice.

Armand VEILLEUX

30 décembre 2024 - 6^ème jour dans l’Octave de Noël

1 Jn 2, 12-17 ; Lc 2, 36-40

H o m é l i e

          La religion d'Israël était tout entière centrée sur le culte rituel et sur le Temple d'Israël, lieu privilégié de ce culte. En même temps les prophètes appelaient à la conversion du cœur, à la justice et à l'amour. Les tensions n'avaient jamais manqué entre les responsables du culte et de ses lois d'une part et les prophètes d'autre part. Quand Jésus apparaît, les prêtres et les docteurs de la loi s'imposent au peuple mais il n'y a plus de prophètes. Tout l'enseignement de Jésus consistera à montrer que ce que son Père attend des hommes, ce n'est pas d'abord une observance cultuelle ou rituelle, mais bien la pratique de l'amour, de la justice et de la miséricorde, à l'image de l'attitude de son Père à notre égard.

29 December 2024 - Feast of the Holy Family

1 Sam 1:20...28; 1 John 3:1...24; Luke 2:41-52

Homily

Given that today is the Feast of the Holy Family, it is tempting to look for lessons about the family life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in this account of Jesus' escapade to the Temple on his way up to Jerusalem with his parents for Easter at the age of twelve. But in so doing, we would be introducing into this beautiful narrative concerns that were undoubtedly not those of Luke. As we have seen on more than one occasion, the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel use highly symbolic and theological language. Luke makes no claim to inform us about Jesus' childhood, about which he himself probably knows very little. Instead, he announces the main themes of his Gospel, which begins with Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by his cousin John the Baptist.