Dec. 21, 2007: School Christmas Mass

When I was twelve years old, I was invited to a birthday party of a friend at ShowBiz Pizza. Now it is known as Chuck-E-Cheese's. How many of you have been there? While we were eating pizza, there would be a show put on by the muppet-looking robots that sang and danced. Mr. Munch was the purple monster, Jasper T. Jowls was the hound dog, Helen Henny was the chicken, and Chuck E Cheese was the mouse. And when you were there, with all the robots, all the arcade video games, and all the lights and sounds, you forgot why you were there in the first place. Instead of remembering that this was a birthday party for my friend, I was busy feeding quarters to SkeeBall machine to win tickets so that I can trade for a toy. I spent a lot of money, but not on my friend.

Sometimes that can happen to us on Jesus' Birthday, the Christmas. Many of us ask for gifts and toys and lots of people are busy buying gifts for each other. But how about Jesus? Isn't it Jesus' birthday? What are we giving Jesus for his birthday?

You know Jesus was born in a stable where there was no electricity, no heat, or lights. So even if you wanted to give him a Nintendo Gameboy for his birthday present, there would be no batteries to run it with. I think there is a good reason why he chose to be born in a stable. He's telling us that gifts for his birthday does not require money or batteries. He wants us to realize that the most precious gift he wants for this Christmas is for us to come and see him like the shepherds and the drummer boy. That means we can come to see him at the church or we can talk to him right at our bedside in prayer. The best gift that we can give to Jesus on his birthday is our love for him.