We Need A Little Christmas

My Homily from this morning, the Fourth Sunday of Advent...

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In 1956, a new Broadway Show called Mame took the stage. It was set in New York City, and told the story of an eccentric woman named Mame Dennis. Mame was extremely wealthy and lived a fabulous metropolitan lifestyle in the Big Apple, until it is interrupted by the arrival of Patrick, her orphaned nephew. The show takes place across the span of the Great Depression, and World War II. When Mame looses all of her fortune in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, she decides that she, Patrick, and her two household servants need a little Christmas Cheer, and in the 1966 production of the show, Angela Lansbury performed the song “We Need a Little Christmas” for the very first time.

The song speaks of all the charming nuances that make Christmas so endearing- the holly, the trees, the stockings, the fruitcake, and the candles in the window. Toward the middle of the song we find the verse;

“For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older
We need a little Christmas now.”

I don’t know about all of you, but I can sure relate to that song as I stand here today.
I think we all need a little Christmas.


As winter draws deeper and deeper, the temperature drops further and further, and the days get shorter and shorter…We look at our day to day lives around us, and we find the stress and headaches of challenges we wish we could defeat. Aggravation, bills, car payments, and the list goes on…and we grow a little colder…

We put on the news and all we can find is reminder after reminder of the horrifying tragedy that befell the town of Newton Connecticut last Friday…we hear about house fires, break ins, and local violence …and we grow a little sadder…

We look at the year that has passed us by, we look at the goals we set for ourselves in January. We look at the experiences of the last 12 months –both the good and the bad – and we realize that we have grown a little older…

We need a little Christmas.

We need a little Christmas because the joy and the love that comes on Christmas morning conquers all of these things. The Birth of Jesus brings hope to the world, because it’s the birth of our Salvation; a salvation for which the people of Israel had waited for centuries.

In this morning’s Gospel we heard the story of the Visitation. Mary- now carrying the Christ Child in her womb- travels several days out from Nazareth, to what Scripture calls the hill country, which is the city of Hebron. According to tradition, this ancient town rested over the remains of the founders of faith; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and King David were all buried in this region. As all the pieces of history come together in this momentous visit, Elizabeth knows that Mary is the mother of God, “Blessed are you among woman, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Who am I that the mother of my Lord should visit me?” Centuries of Prophecy are on the cusp of coming to fulfillment.

Elizabeth had been raised in the Jewish Faith, and knew the Prophesies of their ancestors all too well. She knew of the Messiah that had been promised since Eden. The wife of a temple Priest, her faith was at the very core of her life. She was an older woman, thought by her community to be barren, a state in life that was shrouded in shame. With each passing day this woman grew a little older, grew a little sadder, grew a little colder.

Now here were all those answers, right there at her door. Here was the climax, the completion of her lifelong Advent, and the woman who was to bear it was her own cousin, Mary.  It says that the unborn John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb for joy! It’s a moment when all those are “in the know” are united in a moment of joy beyond all telling.

They needed a little Christmas…they needed it right this very minute! Having waited for centuries as a nation, and all their lives as people, the time for waiting and preparing was over. The prophecies were about to be fulfilled, and every single one of them knew it. Now here we stand…we stand with Elizabeth and Mary in that doorway, and like Elizabeth the child within us jumps for joy…the child that in fact is us, the us from before life got colder, sadder, and older.

The anticipation and joy is everywhere...you can feel it in the air. One may think while in the mall that it's something entirely commercial, but that's not true...because deep down inside, no matter what is at the fore front of people's mind, no matter what we call the tree at City Hall, and no matter how many things have been bought, wrapped, or returned; The entirety of creation is on the brink of something marvelous...something so marvelous it will disturb the peace of heaven itself on a silent Bethlehem night.

So indeed, as the song says, let’s haul out the holly, put up the tree, and fill up the stockings – not because any of those things make Christmas, but because we are celebrating; celebrating that the wait is finally over! May that child within each and every one of us leap for joy – because prophecy is about to become fulfillment…