Bethlehem Today And The One Born In Bethlehem – 4th Sunday of Advent – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; December 22, 2024

Modern Bethlehem is located on the “West Bank” nominally under the “Palestinian Authority” but completely dominated by the modern secular state of Israel – not to be confused with the biblical Israel. The basis of modern Bethlehem’s economy is tourism/pilgrimages. Since the war that began more than a year ago that source of income and jobs has stopped; with the impending cease-fire, however, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is urging the resumption of pilgrimages.

Since the war began the whole West Bank, including Bethlehem has effectively been under an Israeli imposed “lockdown.” Passage through numerous checkpoints have made it nearly impossible to travel to Jerusalem to work. The West Bank itself has been divided into different security sectors, with checkpoints, rendering internal travel difficult. Further, the Palestinian residents have been subject to increased aggression and violence on the part of Israeli settlers. Many Christian families have left. It is not clear if the cease-fire will ameliorate this situation.

I have been made aware of this, in particular, through being a member of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a pontifical order of knighthood whose purpose in today’s world is, out of Christian charity, to provide material assistance to the Christians of the Holy Land; this assistance passes by way of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Order of the Holy Sepulchre is the financial mainstay of the Patriarchate, and through the Patriarchate, of the “social assistance” network for the Christians of the Holy Land. Today, the Christians of the Holy Land could be counted among the poorest of the poor, not just because of their material poverty, but because of their being without protection in a land torn by conflict and violence.

This last October when I attended the annual meeting for the Northwest Lieutenancy of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre we had a Zoom link with students and staff at the University of Bethlehem. At first what we got was pretty much polite “thank yous” to benefactors. Then some of the members of the Order started asking questions. Then the dam broke. One young mother said, “It is not okay here. It would not be true to say otherwise. There is no hope.”

Those words came from Bethlehem, the birthplace of the only hope this world has ever known, Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the Christians of Bethlehem can still go to the Basilica of the Nativity and touch the spot where Christ was born.

While the cease-fire might alleviate the situation, right now, there is still little human hope in Bethlehem. More generally, the plight of Christians in the Holy Land has become humanly hopeless. Since 1948 the complex web of conflict has grown intractable; the Christians have been caught in the middle and their numbers have greatly diminished during the course of recent decades. These are the most ancient Christian communities in the world; they are the ones with the longest continuous history in the Holy Land.

We can provide them assistance, but we cannot solve the problem. We cannot do much, but there are four things we should do. First, we must remember their plight. We cannot let ourselves be indifferent in this matter; it would be wrong to say, “It doesn’t affect me; it is not my concern.”  We should not think that there can be a solution to the problems of the world, or of our nation, if the Christians of the Holy Land are forgotten. Second, since it is our Christian concern, we must pray for them, for our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. We should never think of prayer as “doing nothing.” The presence of the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross was not useless. Third, recognizing their poverty, their suffering, and their faith, we must take care to be grateful for what we have. Because they are suffering does not mean that we should spend all day crying, but it does mean that we should take care to use with gratitude the good things that God has given us, above all the gift of our life and the gift of grace. Fourth, and most important, being mindful of their plight, we must receive in faith the One who was born in Bethlehem. To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (Jn 1:12-13) We must take these words seriously and live by them daily.

From Bethlehem came the One who is the ruler of Israel, the man the Son of David, who being the Son of God is the King of the true Israel, the people of God. The land will only have peace when they recognize their King.

His origin is from old, for his birth was prophesied many centuries beforehand; it was announced to David 1,000 years beforehand and to Abraham closer to 2,000 years beforehand; it was announced even in Eden in the judgement on the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; she will crush your head, while you strike at his heal. (Gen 3:15) Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recognized him while he was yet in the womb of the Virgin, and recognized the Virgin as the woman at enmity with the serpent, when she proclaimed, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Even more, his origin is from old because his origin is from eternity. In the splendor of the saints, from the womb, before the daystar, I begot you. (Ps 110[109]:3 Vulgate) That is to say, he is born by grace in the souls of the saints, he is born in time from the womb of the Virgin Mary, and he is born from the Father before the creation of the world. Elizabeth also recognized this when she said, How does this happen to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?

He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord his God. The shepherd leads his flock to pasture, Christ, the Good Shepherd, leads his flock to the pasture of eternal life and eternal peace. That means he guides, protects, and feeds his flock along the paths of this life, providing them with all they need to reach the eternal pastures. He guides with his teaching; he protects with the Blood of his Cross, and he feed us with his Body in the Holy Eucharist. This is the same Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and laid in the manger of Bethlehem.

He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. (Jn 10:11) For this he was born in Bethlehem. He is the one who brought to fulfillment the figurative sacrifices of the Old Testament, the offering of the blood of bulls and goats that could not take away sin but could signify the Blood of Christ. (cf. He 10:4) He is the One who came to do the Father’s will, offering his own Body on the Cross, sanctifying us by that offering once for all. He is the One who enables us to take part in that same sacrifice of the Cross, by entrusting it to his Church and to his priests in the sacrament of his Body and Blood, offered in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Let me highlight four high points of the Mass, through which we are able to participate most fully.

First, we listen to the word of God. The blessed Virgin listened to the message of the angel and received it in faith. Elizabeth proclaimed, Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. Like the Virgin we need to listen to the word of God with faith, believing in the promises and building our life upon the commands. (cf. Mt 7:24-25) As the Holy Spirit fashioned the Body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin, so the word of God should shape our minds and hearts.

Second, in faith, rooted in the word of God, we must approach the liturgy of the Eucharist. When the bread and wine are brought forward, in our hearts we should offer to God, through Christ, all of our hopes and fears, all our joys and sorrows, all our labors and trials, especially those most present at the moment.

Third, we come to the consecration, when the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and the Lamb is mystically immolated upon the altar in the separate consecration that shows forth his death accomplished once for all. At that moment we should not only, in union with the priest, offer Christ himself, the perfect sacrifice, the perfect worship, to the Father, in atonement for our own sins and those of the whole world, that he might have mercy on us and on the whole world, but we should also take our own will, like a prize yearling bull, and with sword of our intention, slay that bull, laying our will on the altar together with the Body and Blood of Christ. To slay our will means to give up all our stubbornness and resistance to God, to submit our will to his, to put ourselves completely at his disposal, to no longer live to ourselves, but to him, to say to Jesus, Lord Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like unto thine.

Finally, we come to the moment of communion. The sacrifice of our own will in union with the sacrifice of Christ is the perfect preparation for communion. By sacrificing our will, we give our life to him. In holy communion we receive his life in return.

In this way we can say with St. Paul, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. (Gal 2:20)

This year, let us give a Christmas gift to the Christians of Bethlehem by taking Jesus Christ seriously, by taking the life of grace he has given us seriously, and so living according to his teaching.

When the Blessed Virgin, carrying Jesus in her womb, greeted Elizabeth, through her intercession, John was sanctified in the womb of his mother and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. To take the Gospel seriously and to live it, we need the intercession of Mary. That is why we must pray continuously, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Pray for us so that even though no hope is to be found in human solutions, that we do not lose hope, that the Christians of Bethlehem, where you gave birth, do not lose hope. Pray for us, that even amid the darkness of the world, the peace of Christ might reign in our hearts.

The saying has it that it is darkest before dawn. That is not literally true, but it is emotionally true. Too often we give up the moment before God comes to deliver us. Literally, this is the darkest time of year and it is the time in which we celebrate the birth of the true and only hope of the world, Jesus Christ, may he be praised forever.