25 December 1991
Rome, Italy

My dear Confreres and my dear Sisters,

A few years ago I recall a teacher telling me of a discussion which she was having with a group of young children about God. She was asking the children to tell her how they thought of God, what images of God they had in their little heads. Then one child put up its hand and said, "I want my God to have skin on...."

The feast of Christmas is the celebration of the fact that we have a God Who "has skin on" and Who took that skin, along with blood and bones and all that makes up a human body, from the womb of the Virgin Mary through the power of the Spirit of God. We are rejoicing tonight that the God Who made the stars emerged one night from the womb of a Palestinian girl who, because there was no room in the inn, was obliged to lay Him in a manger. We are gathered here tonight to celebrate the birthday of our God Who "had skin on."

Birthdays are always happy events. When the birthdays of our close friends come around, we wish them a Happy Birthday. When we wish someone a happy birthday, we wish to say that we are glad that he or she was born. We wish to say that he or she means something to us. That is why, perhaps, we can remember best the birthdays of our parents and closest friends. They mean so much to us. Tonight we have come to wish Our Lord a happy birthday. By our presence here in the chapel at an unusual hour for Mass, we wish to say that we are glad that He came into the world and that His coming has meant a lot to us. When His birthday was first announced to the shepherds on the hills of Palestine, the angel said to them that they had reason to be glad because "there is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord." (Lk 2:11). That is what Our Lord means to all of us tonight and always. He is our Saviour. It will be through Him, and only through Him, that all of us, please God, will safely reach the end of our pilgrimage on earth and see in all His glory Him Who is our Saviour, the God "who has skin on."

Birthdays are joyful events. When we celebrate anyone's birthday, we don't expect the person who is being honored to give gifts. It is the people who are invited to the celebration who are expected to give presents. But at Our Lord's birthday party, He Himself offers a gift to all who will accept it. The gift that He offers to each of us individually is a share in the life of God. The Infant who was born of the Virgin Mary was like any other infant. He needed all the care that any infant needs, and Mary gave it to Him. But He was different from all other infants in that within that tiny Body, the life of God Himself lay hidden. Later on, when He would have grown up into manhood, He would give to all those who would receive Him a share in that life of God. In the simple and magnificent words of St. John the Evangelist, "To all who received Him and believed in His name He gave power to become children of God." (Jn 1:12). Jesus Christ is already within us through sanctifying grace, but the Church wishes that the grace be renewed and that we live with a new life more independent of sin, more free from imperfections and undue attachment to creatures and to the things of this passing world. That is one of the special graces offered to us by God in our celebration of the feast of Christmas each year. So we rejoice tonight, for not only was our Saviour born, as each of us was born into this world, but He is offering to all of us the gift of a new and deeper share in that life which was His from all eternity.

The birthday gift, then, that Our Saviour gives us is Himself. We should not come to the birthday celebration empty-handed. What gift can we give Him Who is the Lord of all? The psalmist puts into the mouth of God the words, "I own all the beasts of the forest.... I know all the birds in the sky.... Were I hungry, I would not tell you, for I own the world and all it holds." (Ps 50:10-12). The only gift we can offer our newborn Saviour, and which He does not yet possess, is our hearts, within which lie our wills. Aligning our wills ever more closely with His Will, at all times and in all circumstances, is the only gift we can offer Our Saviour on Christmas day and every other day throughout the year. It is the gift we try to place on the altar each time we celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice. It is the gift which Jesus Himself offered to His Father. "When Christ came into the world, He said, `Sacrifice and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me;' ...Then I said, `See, I have come to do your will, O God.'" (Heb 10:6).