TEXT OF HOMILY BY
THE MOST REVEREND JOHN J. MYERS,
ARCHBISHOP OF NEWARK,
MIDNIGHT MASS AT THE
CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF THE SACRED HEART
DECEMBER 25, 2001

Welcome to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Praised be Jesus Christ on this the anniversary of His birth! We celebrate the birth of our Savior even as we are particularly aware this year of mankind’s need for salvation in the face of evil which can engulf the human heart and threaten human society.

A few years ago a cousin of mine e-mailed me a story. It seems a group of scientists were talking about their great achievements. Finally they decided that they were so good that they did not need God anymore. So they sent one of their number to inform God of this fact.

The scientist arrived and God listened very patiently. Then He said, “Okay, but first, how about a man-making contest? We will do it just the way I did it the first time. The scientist said, “Fine,” and he stooped down and scooped up a handful of dirt.

God said, “Oh no you don’t. You go out and get your own dirt.”

This simple story – a little silly, really – does reveal how dense we human beings can be when we think about God and the things of God. We need anniversaries and jubilees to help us think again.

This vast universe holding billions not just of stars but of galaxies, so immense that light takes millions of years to reach us from those distant places, God created ex nihilo – from nothing. And we continue to discover the incredible secrets of the atom and subatomic particles – and secrets of natural forces. Even some of the secrets of life itself.

And that just begins to hint at the being of the infinite, all powerful, all knowing God.
This infinite God we have learned through His revelation is a community of persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This God made human beings in His own image – to know, to love, to create – to form community just as He is a community – with Him and with one another.

Mankind misused this creation, introducing sin, selfishness and evil into the world and thereby severing our loving communion with God and placing huge obstacles in the way of peaceful human community. We have fresh and powerful experience of that reality in the events that have recently touched our area and our country.

God would not leave us that way. Over the centuries He prepared the WAY.

And when preparations were complete, God the Son was incarnate of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

Tonight, we celebrate His birth which occurred not as anticipated, but in poverty and simplicity. The great God quietly entered our world and began a life which would be filled with wonder and human truth, beauty and goodness and which would end in suffering and death, but then in Resurrection and Glory.

El Dios infinito que hemos conocido por Su revelación es una comunión de personas: Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo.

Este Dios hizo a los seres humanos a Su propia imagen para conocer, amar y crear; para formar comunidad igual que El es comunidad, con El y unos con otros.

La humanidad hizo mal uso de la creación introduciendo en el mundo el pecado, el egoísmo y el mal, por consiguiente, separándonos de nuestra comunión de amor con Dios y poniendo inmensos obstáculos en el camino de la pacífica comunidad humana.

Nosotros tenemos la experiencia todavía fresca y poderosa de esta realidad, en los acontecimientos que recientemente afectaron nuestra área y nuestro país.

Dios no nos dejaría así. El preparó el CAMINO a través de los siglos. Y cuando todo estuvo preparado, Dios Hijo se encarnó en el seno de la Bienaventurada Virgen María por

Obra y gracia del Espíritu Santo.

Esta noche estamos celebrando el nacimiento que ocurrió, no como se esperaba, sino en la pobreza y la simpliciadad. El gran Dios entró silenciosamente en el mundo y empezó una vida llena de portentos y de verdades humanas; de belleza y de bondad, que terminaría en el sufrimiento y la muerte seguidos de la Resurrección y la Gloria.

The God – Man would restore our communion with God even as He taught us to love and serve one another. In that way lies our peace.

Saint Paul says it so well in the letter to Titus:

What happened when God really became man?

We learn of His love for us no matter what.

We learn of the nobility, beauty and goodness of the human person.

We want to live nobly, lovingly and well.
And we have the gift of doing so if we accept it.

San Pablo expresa esto en su carta a Tito:

¿Qué sucedió cuando Dios se hizo verdadero hombre?

Aprendimos de la nobleza, la beleza y la bondad del ser humano.

Ansiamos vivir bien, con nobleza y amor.

Y podemos hacerlo si aceptamos el don de Dios.

That is why we celebrate. That is why we seek family and community. That is why we seek to be loving and generous in our turn.

The angels announced it best: “We have good news of Great Joy. Today, a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph together with simple people like the shepherds heard and understood and believed. Their lives were forever changed. By their intercession and the grace of God may the same be true for us.

About the Archbishop