Homily
Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord
25 December 2025
St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village, KS
AMDG
What did you get Jesus for Christmas this year? You did get Him something right? You didn't show up to Christmas mass empty handed did you? Don't get me wrong, it's amazing to see all of you here, but your presence is not your present. You can do better. You have to do better. I believe you will do better. Jesus is betting this Christmas on you, and so am I.
You know what He wants. Today He appears as a human person, just like you. He wants what you want for Christmas. The difference is that He is not too proud or afraid to ask for it. He wants what everyone newborn baby wants first in this world. At this vulnerable moment, what He wants is also exactly what He needs, and that never changes. It will always be true. You know what He wants for Christmas. He wants you to hold Him. It's what He will always beg of you at Christmas. Did you bring a gift for Him? Christmas depends on you, and on your answer to the ultimate and precise question that Jesus comes tonight to ask you - will you hold me? The first Christmas depended on Mary and Joseph's answer. This Christmas depends on yours.
If Jesus wanted anything else for Christmas, I would be terrified of Him. One would expect a savior to come in power and to ask me these fundamental questions - How are you? Are you ready for this moment? What are you afraid of? How can I help you? But He doesn't, because He knows these terrifying questions will trigger my defenses. I am fine, I guess. No, I don't feel ready for this moment. I'm afraid of losing control. I'll figure it out on my own thanks.
So if Jesus is going to get what He wants for Christmas this year, which is to save me from my fears, He has to trick me. He has to don a disguise. He has to slip behind my elite defenses. He has to disguise his desire for me as need, or I'll get scared. So He tricks me tonight. He finds me tonight by hiding, trusting my faith to find Him. He gives by begging my love. He shows His power to get past my defenses by becoming helpless - cold, poor, naked and homeless. He makes sense of my life by becoming an absolute joke. Instead of asking me the scary question of what I want, He simply asks me - Fr. Mitchel, will you hold me?
How does He ask this question? It's through the most surprising disguise of all. In just a moment, the cave of Bethlehem will give way to this altar, the manger which once held the Bread of Life to that desperately hungry and fearful place in your soul that only the Eucharist can reach. You're about to put the Mass in Christ's Mass, you see. It's at that moment that you give Jesus precisely what He wants for Christmas, your answer to the precise and ultimate Christmas question - will you hold me?
I have no idea how your answer will save the world. I only know it's what Jesus wants for Christmas, and that Christmas runs through your answer, and your touch, if only you're not afraid to hold this baby in a new and deep within your soul.
Do not be afraid, Mary to hold me. Do not be afraid Joseph, to hold me. Do not be afraid, I dare each of you, to hold this baby.
If you've ever held a newborn baby, you know you're the one being held. If you're scared to hold a baby, you're scared even of Christmas. You've forgotten who you are, and the meaning of your life.
So Jesus is here at Christmas to see if anyone here tonight is ready to give Him what He wants, and is courageous enough to answer the original, precise and ultimate Christmas question - will you hold me? If you say yes, the Christmas miracle will happen here tonight. And what Jesus really wants, and what you really want For Christmas, will both come true.
+mj
