December 24, 2025
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily at the Christmas Eve Family Mass on December 24, 2025 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the evening’s readings: Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 96; Titus 3:5-6; and Luke 2:1-14.
This homily is partially inspired by “Sometimes I Forgot to Tell You I Love You” from Madeleine l’Engle’s journal, The Irrational Season (Harper Collins, 1977).]
Welcome, welcome, welcome, and merry Christmas! Welcome to everyone who isn’t with us on a regular basis, including all of you visiting from out of town, and welcome to everyone joining us online! I have a hunch that we may also have some people with us tonight who celebrating their first Christmas Mass ever, or the first one that they will remember! If you’re celebrating your first Christmas Mass tonight, can you wave for us – or have your parents wave for you if you don’t comprehend what I’m saying – so that we can give you an especially warm welcome on this Christmas Eve? We’re glad that you’re here! [Applause.]
Tonight, we celebrate something that sounds impossible: that God was born among us as a human being. We celebrate that God so loved the world that he mercifully gave us his only Son, that the world might be saved through him. In this, we are humbled. In this, we rejoice!
[Step away from the pulpit.]
I’d like to start by asking some of the children here tonight for their ideas, since children are great at explaining profound things in simple ways. Let’s talk about three big words that begin with the letter ‘I.’
- Do you know what the word “impossible” means? [take a few responses]
- How about the word “incredible”? Sometimes we adults don’t use the word properly, but let’s see if we can get a proper definition. [take a few responses]
- And now, a toughie: what about the word “irrational”? [take a few responses; if necessary, ask them to ask adults and older siblings for help]
Tonight, we celebrate something that is irrational – it does not make sense. It is something incredible – it defies what we think can be done. It is something that most people would think is impossible. And yet, it happened. God was born as a baby into our world.
God created the universe, including the stars, mountains, rivers, fish, birds, cats, dogs, and you and me. God knows everything. God loves everyone. God is all powerful. And yet, God chose to be born as a human being. God became a little baby, completely dependent on Mary and Joseph to feed him, protect him, and educate him. That seems irrational, incredible, and impossible to us!
But Christmas teaches us that God understands what it means to be a person. Jesus was a person… just like you and me! As Jesus, God had parents who asked him to do his chores. He had cousins to play with. He had to learn math, reading, and religion. So no matter what you’re experiencing in your life, you can talk about it with God. God will understand because Jesus had parents, played with friends, went to school, and grew up just like you’re doing. You can talk with God about anything; God will understand!
So what if Christmas seems impossible? The angel Gabriel told Mary that nothing will be impossible for God!
[Pause and return to ambo.] For those of you who might be struggling to find the joy and the magic of Christmas this year, I have a few thoughts.
Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, wrote a sequel called Through the Looking-Glass. At one point in the second book, a character declares, “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Parents, you probably feel exhausted most days, trying to do the impossible in caring for your family when the news feels filled with uncertainty. But if there’s one day of the year when you might be able to believe in six impossible things before breakfast, it’s tomorrow. Give it a shot. You’re probably going to be up really early, anyway!
Angels are messengers of God, and children embrace Gabriel’s message much more easily than jaded adults. As the prophet Isaiah foretold: a little child shall lead us. If you need some help believing in the unbelievable as you look across a living room strewn with crumpled wrapping paper, consider this short poem by Madeleine l’Engle:
This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There’d have been no room for the child.
The Christmas story is simple and profound. Possible in a seeming impossibility. Incredible in a world that often doesn’t surprise us anymore… and during these days when everything seems irrational… it makes perfect sense that God becomes one of us, so that we might do the impossible and become like God one day.
That too seems irrational, incredible, and impossible. But that’s Christmas. So this Christmas, let’s all do something irrational, incredible, and impossible together:
Let us believe.