Christmas Homily - Creation is Good


I have a confession. Let’s just keep this between you and me. I love living in Northern Nevada. Some of you know I was born and raised in Ohio, and the majority of my family still lives there. I moved here in my early 20’s to work as a geologist in the gold mines of Elko. The incredible and sometimes raw beauty of this part of creation astounded me. Even to this day. And I know it is just not me. How many recent photos of incredible sunrises have I seen on social media of late.

Look at creation around us. Listening to the Whooping cranes fly over head in the late fall on their migration. The amazing transformation in the spring to the green of our desert. The views of Tahoe, the Truckee River.  The sights of the stars away from our city!

Creation is good.


We believe as Catholics that all of creation reflects God. Creation is NOT God, but reflects God. Therefore all creation is designed to reflect the beauty of the Divine. From the Big Bang Billions of years ago, the babies to be born today.  We have celebrated this goodness in our artwork, in our architecture, in our love for the earth.

All of Creation is Good.

It can be so easy to forget that.   Especially when we witness and participate in ugliness. We fight over things. We let stress control us. We get all passive aggressive with one another and actively aggressive too. The utter ugliness seen on social media, even from Catholics.  We fight over what we think is power. We fight because our egos are out of check. We fight because we are scared; scared that we won’t have enough, scared of others.

Creation is good. We are good.

Not because of any value we place on it. Not because it earns us money. Because God created it, and us, as such.

Think back to those gifts we made for our parents when we were children. Or those gifts made for us by your own kids, or grandkids? There probably were not very pretty. But how precious they were and still are. Their value comes from being made with love.

Christmas celebrates goodness. Christmas calls on us to remember and to make real in our own lives goodness. Christmas reminds us that all of creation, and humanity especially, has inherent goodness.

The fullness of Divinity, the fullness of the Son of God became a human person. God entered into time and space. Revealing time and space, matter, humanity has a relationship with the Divine. They are not two, but one. Creation must be good if creation is to be in relationship with the Ultimate good, God.

Christ born into time and space; Christ born into a family. Chist born into a world that had become divided. 
Christ the person reveals a path to enlightenment, to experience the salvation, the freedom of God. Christ reveals the goodness of all human persons.
Christ reveals the unity and harmony of all of creation.

The Way of Christ is one that builds our unity. It helps us to live in harmony.
When we believe in that inherent goodness of each other it empowers us. We can forgive one another and accept forgiveness.
We can accept others for who they are, even if we disagree with their opinions, and work with others to build bridges.
When we believe in the inherent goodness of the world. We care for the world, not pollute. We care for it for the future. We honor was has been given.
When we believe in our own inherent goodness. Such strength can be drawn from it. The grace to do what is good. The grace to not be manipulated by the machinations of others. The power to love and be loved.

We are not created to escape this world.
We are not created to abuse this world.
We are not created to abuse one another.

We are created, as those children of God, to birth into this world its own inherent goodness. 
God empowers us. Our mission, our very being, is just that.


I know it can seem overwhelming. I know we can get bruised and abused by the sin of this world. We can become discouraged by the negativity, by the apparent chaos. We can be caught up in the loneliness, the hurts, all the suffering that we are shown. The pressure to perform seems too much.  We may want to retreat, to give up. We may only long to escape this world and give up.

Don’t! Look around.
There is so much beauty. There is snow in our mountains, water in our rivers. There are children smiling. There are young people falling in love and making marriages. There are young adults finding joy in their lives. There are grandparents sharing wisdom.

There are people being fed. There are people who are provided with housing. Relationships healed with forgiveness, with compassion.  Families join together in old traditions and making new ones. 

It truly is a good place. It is a beautiful place.

Christmas makes us pause.   Christmas makes us look differently at the world around us, and to see how God births forth the goodness. 

Christmas reminds us of our goodness, born anew, each and every day.

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