Homily for Christmas December 25, 2024

This year, I did something new and significant with the candles we have in the rectory windows. I bought LED bulbs, which promise a long life of illumination. This way, I won’t have to go scrambling for bulbs in stores that never seemed to have quite the number I needed.

Do you know how the custom of placing candles in windows started? One account I read says that the custom was brought to America by Irish immigrants. The historical background is interesting. When religion was suppressed throughout Ireland during the English persecution, the people had no churches in which to worship and celebrate Mass. Priests hid in forests and caves, secretly visiting farms and homes to say Mass during the night. It was the dearest wish of every Irish family that at least once in their lifetime a priest would arrive at Christmas to celebrate Mass during the Holy Night. For this grace they hoped and prayed all through the night.

When Christmas arrived, they left all the doors unlocked and placed burning candles in the windows so that any priest who happened to be in the vicinity would be welcomed and guided to their home through the dark night. Silently the priest would enter through the unlatched door, wherein he would be greeted by the devout with fervent prayers of gratitude and flowing tears of happiness that their home was to become a church for Christmas.

To justify this practice in the eyes of the English soldiers, the Irish used to explain: “We burn the candles and keep the doors unlatched so that Mary and Joseph, looking for a place to stay, will find their way to our home and be welcomed with open doors and open hearts.” The English authorities, finding this Irish “superstition” harmless, did not bother to suppress it. Candles in the windows have always remained a cherished custom of the Irish, although many of them have long since forgotten the earlier significance.

And so, we have this beautiful custom of candles in our windows at Christmas time. Now, I think we should reclaim their spiritual significance. Let the lighted candle be a sign that our hearts and homes are open to the presence of God. Let them serve as reminders that the best place for Jesus to be born is in our hearts and our families. Let the lighted candles mean that our faith is strong enough not to allow the darkness of our society and our politics to overcome it. Let our burning candles proclaim that we want to be the light of promise and hope for a world at war, a world continually dealing with violence, prejudice and hate, a world in which some are hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely and homeless, a world in which some of God’s children are relegated to poverty, abuse and neglect. Let our burning candles speak of our hospitality and welcome—not just for Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but for all who are forced to live on the peripheries of compassion and on the margins of abandonment and neglect…for on this Christmas light still comes into our world, and the darkness will not overcome it.