First reading: Jeremiah 31:10-14
Psalm: Ps 97:1,6,11-12
Epistle: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:15-20

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

As it had been told to them. On this beautiful Solemnity, given to us by our Holy Church, let’s focus on that phrase — as it had been told them.

Consider the shepherds. There was, and is nothing fancy about shepherds. They see things as they are — and they accept them. The shepherds, gathered on the hillside that evening, were prepared for the dangers that exist out there. They guarded the sheep. They guarded themselves against the cold. When day would come, they would point their sheep toward the pasture, the available grass. There is the grass, go and graze. Shepherds don’t worry about the grass that isn’t or the wolves that aren’t. They need to face reality. They were forced to accept reality, or the sheep would not eat, and their livelihood would be destroyed.

Perhaps that is the reason the angels called the shepherds. Shepherds tell the sheep like it is. The shepherds, by their very nature, bear witness to reality. Hearing the message the shepherds ran off to the city, leaving their flocks behind. They went to see this new reality, announced by the angels. The Gospel goes on to tell us:

And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child;
and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

Acceptance. They saw and they accepted the reality of what they had been told: for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Not only wonderful, but wonderfully perfect, that men who lived lives based in reality should be the first to go about proclaiming the coming of the Messiah. I can just hear them: It is what it is. He has come. Real, perfect, the testimony of men so grounded in truth that there could be no doubt.

Brothers and sisters,

The prophet Jeremiah alludes to this when he says:

“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands afar off—

Like the shepherds we are to hear the very same words: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Sometimes, we can be drawn to think of faith as an intellectual exercise, or an emotional experience. Who doesn’t shudder during that moment on Good Friday, when we fall prostrate before the empty altar. Christ has given over his spirit. Who doesn’t shed a tear at the thought of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in the stable. The perfection of God among us in pure innocence and light. At other times we think through our faith. If I do ‘x’ then ‘y’ will happen. We think through the Holy Mass, the forgiveness of sins, the power of God’s Holy Word, the bread and wine becoming body and blood. It is recitation, almost process like. We must break the mold, and trade off emotion and intellectualism for prayer and witness based on reality, the reality of shepherds.

My friends,

If we believe, acknowledging God’s reality, Christ’s coming, all He did and said, and His death, resurrection, and ascension, to be as real as the book in our hands, the coat on our backs, and the shoes on our feet, then we will have become like those shepherds, who saw and believed.

Like the shepherds we are to go out and tell the world what we have heard, what we have seen, and what we know for a fact.

Now is the moment. Confronted with these all so real men, we are forced to change our perspective. Jesus is not an option, someone a person might or might not choose to believe in. He is real. He has been seen and witnessed to. The world must come to the reality of God among us. Jesus Christ is real and lives. He is the Son of God, He is all the things the Holy Church says of Him, and more. Believing the reality we must say: He is real.

St. Paul reminds Titus that we are: heirs in hope of eternal life. We are heirs with the same measure of reality you would find in a surrogates court. We can prove our claim to eternal life. The proof, the reality of Christ’s coming, is as real as the grass in the shepherd’s pasture. We can point to it, just as the shepherds point their sheep to the grass. When we point to it, we point to ourselves. We, by our faith, manifested in our testimony, in our work, in our charity, in our service, in our witness to the living, real, and eternal God, are the proof of Christ’s coming.

Make no mistake. The world has been changed. As the shepherds lives were changed, so the life of the world has been changed. We have a new reality, a perfected, eternal reality. As the shepherds heralded the reality of Christ’s coming, let us go forth, as we step into a new year, proclaiming through steadfast witness, through unbreakable certainty: Christ is real. The world will believe, because we are grounded in the reality that matters. They will believe, as we have shown them, as it had been told them. Christ has come. Alleluia. Amen.