We need a savior: Homily for Thursday, December 28, 2023

It's a common phrase to say that we celebrate at Christmas the birth of our Savior. But if we have a Savior, then in fact there is something from which we need to be saved. Otherwise, there is no need of a Savior.

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This Christmas, we celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation.

We need a savior

It’s a common phrase to say that we celebrate at Christmas the birth of our Savior. But if we have a Savior, then in fact there is something from which we need to be saved. Otherwise, there is no need of a Savior.

I’ve never been listed as a Savior for saving someone from drowning because I’ve never done it. I’ve never had need. And if you’re relying on me to save you from drowning, you’re in trouble. We’re probably both going to drown.

But what does it mean to talk about Christ our Savior? St. John in his first reading gives a very powerful testimony to what it means to be disciples of the Savior. He talks about sin. There are at least two books that have the same title, Whatever Became of Sin? We don’t talk about that anymore. Or at least it appears that we don’t talk about it anymore.

And I would suggest that it’s unfortunate because what it’s led to, I think, sometimes is a merely political approach to almost every problem we face. Imagine, for example, if we could better identify the corporate sin in which we all share.

For example, I could certainly say, and I think it’s true, we have some concern that the planet’s getting warmer, our climate is changing. And yet I get in my car and I drive. I might say to myself or even convince myself, well, that’s the big deal. It’s just one little car, in my case, a Toyota Corolla.

Or can I at least reflect in my life and say, where are those areas where I have not been attentive to the ways in which I have been wasteful with what I have given? John, in his first reading very beautifully, says we need a Savior because we sin.

And if we didn’t have a Savior, we would die not just for today but forever. We need a Savior because of God’s powerful love. We get one. And John says, let’s not get deceived. Let’s recognize that all of us have sinned.

But we are people of hope that, in fact, despite our sinfulness, we have a God who loves us. Despite the ways in which we have deliberately rejected God, God pours out grace to get us back on the right path.

Despite those times when we did not choose to see Christ in the poor, God pours out grace so that our eyes might be opened anew to serve those in need. That is the message of Christmas, that we needed a Savior, one who would give us the gift of eternal life.

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