Christmas Midnight Mass Page 1 of 2 Near the village of Bethlehem there once stood a tower on the road to Jerusalem. The tower was known as Migdal Eder, the “watch-tower of the flock.” It was at this place that the shepherds near Bethlehem watched their flocks, but these were not just any sheep they were watching. The sheep that were being watched by these vigilant shepherds were the very sheep that were destined for sacrifice in the Temple. Those shepherds, then, that heard the greeting of the angels, saying peace to men of goodwill, were the watching the very lambs to be sacrificed for the sins of Israel: a fitting place to be born for the Lamb that would be offered for the sins of the entire world. The very Birth of Our Lord, then, this Lamb of God, points to His Death. Every one born into this world was born to live, but only one man was born to die. This is the tremendous love of Our Lord– a sacrificial love. What has happened to self-sacrificial love in today’s world? Where are those who truly love in the world? Where are those who would sacrifice today for the sake of getting to heaven, loving even though it costs us? Who could expect to enter heaven, to live forever in God’s home, without loving God, without being His friend? And exactly what does it mean to love God? Our Lord gave us the answer. At the Last Supper He said, “He that has my commandments and keeps them; he it is that loves me.” (Jn 14:15, 21) And what does it mean to be His friend? He answers, “You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.” (Jn 15:14) But before the existence of commandments frightens us, we must know that His law is a sweet law of love. Our Lord came to Bethlehem in poverty and suffering to teach us what it means to love. And in 1923 Our Lord visited a humble religious and in her writings which became known after her death, Our Lord expounded intensely on this teaching. The fact of this visit from and the truth of the words of Our Lord were shown by a number of miracles that were associated with this visit, too many to go into right now. This is the message, which was backed up by miracles and approved of by the Church. Our Lord said: “I am all Love! My Heart is an abyss of Love. It was love that made man and all existing things that they might be at his service. It was love that moved the father to give His Son for man’s salvation which through his own fault he had lost…It was love that made Me embrace all the miseries of human nature, for the love of My Heart saw far ahead. I knew how many imperiled souls would be helped by the acts and sacrifices of others and so would recover life.” (Way, 234) “I am Love! My Heart can no longer contain its devouring flames. I love souls so dearly that I have sacrificed My life for them. It is this love that keeps Me a prisoner in the tabernacle. For nearly twenty centuries I have dwelt there, night and day, veiled under species of Bread and concealed in the small white Host, bearing through love, neglect, solitude, contempt, blasphemies, outrages, sacrileges… “For love of souls, I instituted the Sacrament of Penance, that I might forgive them, not once or twice, but as often as they need to recover grace. There I wait for them, longing to wash away their sins, not in water, but in My Blood… Christmas Midnight Mass Page 2 of 2 “I am God, but a God of love! I am a Father, but a Father full of compassion and never harsh. My Heart is infinitely holy but also infinitely wise, and knowing human frailty and infirmity stoops to poor sinners with infinite mercy. “I love those who after a first fall come to Me for pardon…I love them still more when they beg pardon for their second sin, and should this happen again, I do not say a million times but a million million times, I still love them and pardon them, and I will wash in My Blood their last as fully as their first sin. “Never shall I weary of repentant sinners, nor cease from hoping for their return, and the greater their distress, the greater My welcome. Does not a father love a sick child with special affection? Are not his care and solicitude greater? So is the tenderness and compassion of My Heart more abundant for sinners than for the just.” (11 June 1923: Way, 376) To those who live as enemies of Our Lord, He said, “You did not know Me when you were a child, because no one taught you to know Me; and in the same measure that you grew in age, there grew in you also the inclinations of a nature with vices, love of pleasures, desire to have fun, liberty, riches. “One day you hear it said that to live under my Law means to help your neighbor, love him, respect his rights, his goods; that it is necessary to subject one’s own passion… and since you lived given over to your desires, your bad habits, not knowing what the law forbade, you protested saying: “I don’t want any law but my delight! I want to have fun! I want to be free!” And that is how you began to hate Me, to persecute Me. “But I, Who am your Father, I love you with an infinite love and while you rebelled blindly and persisted in the goal of destroying Me, My Heart filled more and more with tenderness towards you.” “I am your God and your Father, your Creator and your Savior. You are My creatures, My sons, bought at the price of My life and Heart’s Blood, which I shed to free you from slavery and the tyranny of sin. “You have souls great and immortal, destined for eternal happiness, wills capable of all good, hearts made both to give and receive affection…All you whose craving for affection is unsatisfied, remember that you were made to love that which is eternal, not that which passes with time.” (Way, 387-388) And when you at last know Me, you will find rest and joy. It is so sad to live as an orphan! Come, poor children… come be with your Father.” If we have been away from the Catholic Church for a while, it’s time to come home. If one has been missing Mass on Sundays, taking God’s name in vain, with expressions like, “oh my God,” if one is contracepting, getting drunk, committing sins against purity, first come to Confession before coming to Holy Communion… Let us come to Confession at least once a year, not only to avoid a mortal sin of neglect, but to receive the healing balm of Our Lord’s Mercy, which He chose to apply by confessing our sins as we know from John 20:23. If we have been away from the Catholic Church for a while, come home. Come home, before dying in hunger. Come to Our Lord – as approachable as a small baby in a manger – to our Father who is waiting to pardon us! On behalf of Fr Kemna and myself, I wish each of you a most holy and Merry Christmas! .