TEXT: Solemnity of The Nativity of the Lord, December 25, 2025
December 25, 2025 Father De Celles Homily
The Nativity of the Lord
December 25, 2025
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
I love tonight’s entrance hymn,
“Adeste Fidelis” or “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”
It is the description of why we are here:
“O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem”
“Come and behold Him…”
“O come, let us adore Him,
Christ, the Lord”
But we don’t need to go halfway around the world
to Bethlehem in the Holy Land to behold Jesus;
we’ve built Him a home right here,
where we can come and adore Him.
Six days ago, we celebrated the 19th anniversary
of the dedication of this church.
If you’ve joined the parish after the dedication, as I have,
you’ve probably heard stories about the “Holy Firehall,”
the Hall of the Volunteer Fire Department on Backlick Road,
where the parish used to have Sunday Mass.
Long-time parishioners speak nostalgically about those days,
especially about the tight-knit community that was formed there.
And yet, they knew they couldn’t stay there,
and so built this magnificent temple.
It is significant that the dedication nineteen years ago
came six days before Christmas
because, after years of fundraising and construction,
everyone wanted to finally celebrate Christmas here in the church.
In part, they wanted to give a special gift to the Lord on His Birthday.
And they wanted to give a fitting home to the one we called in the hymn
“The King of Angels,” “God of God, light of light,”
“True God, begotten, not created,” and “Christ the Lord.”
The God “who abhors not the virgin’s womb,”
but stripped Himself of His heavenly glory to come down to us,
became a little baby, entering into our human life
to save us from our sins.
They wanted a place to come and adore Him.
But in a certain sense, that wasn’t really necessary.
We remember the stories of scripture memorialized in other hymns, like
“O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Silent Night,” and “Away in a Manger.”
And we recall that Jesus was born not in a big, beautiful church like this,
or in a palace or castle, or even in a warm family home.
No, He was born in a tiny little village, in a cold barn,
where He was laid in a trough for animal feed.
There were no decorations of lights, holly, or statues,
only the hay and misty breath of the animals.
No fragrance of sweet incense, just the smell of dirty sheep.
No sounds of dulcet melodies sung by choirs,
only the soft lowing of the cows.
And, of course, the King of Angels had
no golden crown or sumptuous robes,
no throne, no servants, no courtiers.
He was just a little baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger.
But that’s all that was needed because He was the King of Angels.
What else was necessary than God Himself?
And so, in a certain real sense, we didn’t need a beautiful church
to celebrate His birth and adore Him.
Nor do we need all the special decorations we have tonight.
That same Jesus is already here in so many ways:
He’s in our hearts for sure, but also, most sublimely, in that tabernacle.
On the other hand, Jesus chose, with a purpose and a reason,
to be born and live in that humble setting revealed in scripture
and recalled in hymnody.
It is the same purpose and reason that He came to us as a baby:
When He, as God of Gods, created us, with the Father and Spirit,
He created us in the flesh as ensouled bodies.
In the beginning God said, “Let us create man…”
God spoke the Word and man, as male and female, were created,
sharing, as Adam said,
the same “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.”
And when they rejected God’s Word of command to them,
He threw them bodily out of paradise.
But also, He promised to send a Saviour born of “the woman,”
“bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.”
So, as St. Paul tells us,
“When the fullness of the time had come,
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.”
And as St. John tells us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”
Jesus, God the Son, the eternal Word,
chose to come to us, to reveal and begin our salvation
through His Incarnation—His becoming one of us, in body and soul.
That “salvation” is from our sins.
Not only of sins of thought, in our minds and hearts,
but also sins of the malice of the words of our mouths,
the envy and lust of our eyes,
the theft and violence of our hands,
and all the other sins committed through our bodies.
And so, He came in His little baby body
to reveal a new hope, a new beginning for mankind.
He was born into humility
to reveal that being created in the image of God
is not to be created as prideful, but “meek and humble of heart.”
He was born without courtiers, soldiers and servants,
because He came “not to be served, but to serve.”
And all he needed for that was that manger, that stable
and the little town of Bethlehem.
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But the thing is, while He’s God who comes in humility,
we are not God.
And while we rejoice in His humility
we must do so by humbly adoring and worshipping His glory.
We do this in our hearts, but also, like Jesus,
we express or reveal this worship in our flesh
and through the senses of the flesh:
We hear, see, sing, say, touch, and smell.
And so, while in one way it is not necessary
to come here to such a beautiful church,
in another way it is absolutely necessary.
As we will pray in a few minutes,
“[It is] truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,”
to always give Him thanks and praise,
and to worship and adore Him in the flesh.
Because although He is a baby,
He is also God the Son, Christ the Lord.
And so, on that silent night 2000 years ago,
even as He came into the world as a humble baby,
He was, even then, worshipped as the God He was.
First and most splendidly, He was adored and loved by Mary and Joseph.
He was not just their baby; He was God’s only Begotten Son.
So, they worshipped Him, even as they rocked Him to sleep.
And then we read:
“Then an angel of the Lord stood before [the shepherds],
…[and] said to them,
‘…I am bringing you good news of great joy
…to you is born this day…a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’
…And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven..’”
Mary and Joseph are surely here with us tonight adoring their baby boy,
as are St. Gabriel and the host of angels and the holy shepherds,
But while they are here spiritually, we are here both spiritually and bodily.
We bring our bodies to this magnificent church,
and we fill it with art, lights, hymns and prayers.
All this is a gift to the newborn King,
but more fundamentally as a concrete, fleshy expression
of heartfelt adoration.
And tonight, in particular, we sing special hymns
and decorate with the creche and poinsettias, holly, and lights,
in order to proclaim in a dramatic and clear way
to ourselves, each other, and to all the world and heaven itself:
Today is born the Saviour, Christ the Lord.
Still, even that is not enough.
For tonight we remember that by His incarnation and birth,
Jesus didn’t come just to dwell among us or be adored by us.
He came to give Himself to us and for us, for our sins.
And we remember that Christmas is only the revealing of the gift
which comes to completion 33 years later on the Cross.
The Incarnate Word, worshipped as the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem,
is the same Jesus whose body was vilified on a Cross on Calvary.
Tonight we remember that as He gives Himself to us,
we are called to give ourselves to Him as well.
As He strips Himself of the glory of heaven,
He invites us to strip ourselves, by His Grace, of pride and sin,
to become humble little children who die to ourselves for Him.
So, we don’t just come to praise and adore a memory.
And we don’t just come to worship Jim seated on His throne in heaven.
We come to give thanks and praise, adoration and worship,
to Him who, once again, strips Himself of the glory of heaven
to come down from heaven and dwell with us in the flesh.
And so, as He promises,
“My flesh is true food,” and, “This is my body…take and eat,”
He gives Himself to us, on the Cross,
and in a certain way, in the manger.
We say, “Amen,” to all that, as He comes to us in Holy Communion.
Again, He comes to us humbly, but under the appearance
not of a vulnerable newborn baby,
but of a vulnerable piece of bread.
And we respond by carrying Him not in swaddling clothes,
but in a ciborium of gold,
kneeling in adoration to receive Him.
And in receiving Him, giving ourselves to Him.
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In the last days before the dedication of this church nineteen years ago,
I’m told that there was a mad rush to get everything ready
for the Mass of Dedication.
Volunteers were cleaning up the construction dust,
putting up a temporary sound system,
and getting the candles, vessels and vestments
ready for the inaugural Mass.
We have been doing sort of the same thing for the last few days
getting the church ready for tonight.
But as I’ve been saying, the external expresses the internal;
our bodies reveal our hearts and souls.
All during Advent we’ve been getting our souls ready for tonight,
so that, as Jesus comes to us in the flesh and we adore Him in the flesh,
His heart will transform our heart,
and our souls will truly rejoice in Him.
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So now, as we continue this Holy Mass, this Christ-Mass,
let your hearts ring with joy
as your mouths sing joyful hymns to Him.
And as the Eternal Word, Light of Light, God the Son,
descends from heaven in the flesh,
not into the manger but onto the altar,
let your souls adore Him as your knees bend in worship before Him.
And as you leave here tonight, let your lives be filled with
His love for you and your love for Him…
love brighter than all the lights,
warmer than the flames of candles,
sweeter than the smoke of incense,
more captivating than the creche,
more profound than the ancient prayers and venerable hymns.
O come, all ye faithful…
Come, and behold Him, born the King of angels!
…O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!