The Lifestyle of Jesus: Homily for Sunday, December 21, 2025

As we approach the Christmas season, what would it mean for us to think about how we live the lifestyle of Jesus? What if we thought about our present life and reflected on what it would mean if Jesus had our life? What would it mean for Jesus to be an engineer, or an accountant, or a mother or father? Readings for today.

The Lifestyle of Jesus

Before I begin my homily I should be clear that the ideas for this homily come from this book I have mentioned, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by Mark Comer.

In many ways, this second part of Advent, the days just before Christmas are themselves days of Christmas. The readings focus on Christmas events, as in today’s gospel detailing the birth of Jesus.

In many ways, these focus externally on what happened. But what if we were to turn our focus on an internal coming of Jesus. In other words, if we are seeking to acknowledge the coming of Jesus, what if we focused on ourselves?

How do we do this? By asking what Jesus would do, how he would live, if he were us? Like, if we are an accountant, for example, what would that look like if we asked how Jesus would act and live if he were an accountant today? How would Jesus act if he were an engineer? A mother? A father?

If Jesus were to come today, the way he came two thousand years ago, how would he live? If Jesus were a high school student, or a fifth grader, or whatever grade, how would Jesus act?

This is not an insignificant fact as we move into the celebration of Christmas itself. Too often, I think, we limit what it means to follow Jesus to easy cliches. We should love. We should forgive. We should be kind. 

But how do these cliches apply to our way of life? What attitudes would Jesus have if Jesus were in my situation? How would Jesus act if he had my job? What if Jesus were married, or retired, or widowed? How would Jesus live if he were in my school?

This focuses our relationship with Jesus internally, by asking what it means for us to live like Jesus? If Jesus is truly present in our lives, and we have accepted this presence by learning how to live like Jesus would live today, what would that look like for us?

Because sometimes I know I like the idea of following Jesus, but I do not do the things I need to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus. Let me use some concrete examples. I have said for a long time that I would like to play the piano. But the truth is, I don’t. I like the idea of playing the piano, but I don’t adopt the attitude and actions to actually learn how to play the piano.

Or, consider exercise. I know that after the first of the year, fitness centers will be crowded. It is likely that people will be given memberships, or they will make a New Year’s resolution to exercise. But often, people like the idea of exercise, but they do not adapt the lifestyle of exercise.

The same can be true in faith. According to surveys, most Americans believe in God. But if it were the case that these roughly ninety percent of people lived like they believe in God, our churches would be packed. There is the idea of believing in God, but not always the adoption of a lifestyle that shows we really do believe in God.

I do not mean any of these observations to be judgmental. According to an article I saw, many people left because they found the Christians that surrounded them not to be very nice people. Others were never really taught what it meant to be a Christian, or a Catholic, and so they did not see why they should live out their faith as adults.

So what does it mean for us to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus? For in short, if we are to consider what it means to live like Jesus, then the gospels provide clues about how Jesus when about his life. And these clues are helpful in seeking to learn how Jesus would live if he were in our situation. 

What can we learn from Jesus in the gospels about how we should live if we are learning to be like him? Perhaps most important is that Jesus was a person of prayer. Even though he was the Divine Son of God, as one who became fully human it was important to him to make time to pray.

How often do we see Jesus going off by himself, or how often does he bring the disciples by himself to pray to God? I suspect this prayer was simply Jesus placing himself into the presence of God, or encouraging the disciples to do the same. And so while Jesus engaged in formal prayer, and so should we, He also cultivated in himself silent prayer.

Do we? Do we seek out silent time where we just give this gift to God? I have said before, in quoting Sr. Ruth Burrows, that prayer is not something we do, but something God does. Silent prayer means we sit, in silence, waiting to see if God will do anything.

For too often we get caught in doing. We focus only on actions, since they are concrete, and even if God is not speaking to us in our actions, we can at least take comfort that we have done something good.

The second thing that is important from Jesus is what we might call today mindfulness. How valuable is a person who makes us feel like we are the only concern in the world? How valuable is someone who is truly present to us, and not to their phones? Or thinking about what they are going to say next? Or being absorbed, as Saint Martha was, by being busy about many things?

What if we adopted a spiritual practice where we were very attentive to where God was present in our daily lives? Pope Leo just recently recommended we look at a spiritual classic, The Practice of the Presence of God, by a seventeenth century Carmelite monk named Brother Lawrence. There is the Little Way of Saint Therese of Liseux. Both recommend that we focus on the present moment, and see in those things we do where it is that God is present.So many things distract us these days. But what if this Christmas, we not only celebrated the coming of Jesus as a human two thousand years ago, but the ways he longs to be present to us each moment of every day.

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