Bishop Kemme: Jesus became man out of love for all of us

As he considered the basic components in the story of Jesus’ birth, Bishop Karl A. Kemme focused much of his Christmas Eve homily on God’s purpose for becoming a fellow human being. Not only does the incarnation carry profound implications for the human race, the bishop reflected in his homily at Wichita’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, it also speaks volumes about why the Word was made flesh.

“When we examine closely the question of why, we can come to no other conclusion than that it happened because of God’s eternal love,” Bishop Kemme said.

“God loves his people – you and me – so much that he gave us his only begotten Son that we might not perish in our sins but have eternal life. This love took visible, human, and natural form, on that day so long ago when Jesus was born of Mary in the place where the animals lodged, with Joseph there to protect and to provide, with shepherds coming in from their fields witnessing a great chorus of angels in the heavens singing Glory to God in the Highest, a hymn we echo at every Sunday and Holy Day Mass.”
That love is the very key that unlocks the paschal mystery of Christ’s birth, suffering, death and resurrection, the bishop said, and that love should remain foremost in Christians’ minds, especially during the Christmas season.

A question of why
Bishop Kemme opened his homily by harkening back to his high school days at an all-boys minor seminary in which all students were required to take journalism classes and work on the school’s monthly newspaper. Not only did that experience instill the fundamentals of good writing, grammar, precision, and succinctness, he said, it also explained the particular questions a good story should address.

“Early on, we learned that every news article must answer five basic questions: who, what, when, where, and why,” the bishop said. “The first four are somewhat basic and often easy to discover. It is the last question, the why, that might be more of a challenge to answer.”

Christians gather for Christmas to celebrate the great mystery of the incarnation because of an event that happened more than 2,000 years ago, Bishop Kemme said. The specifics include “the who” of Mary, Joseph, shepherds, magi, domesticated animals, and angels, the “what” of Jesus’ humble nativity, the “when” of about 4 B.C., and the “where” of Bethlehem, he said.

But the most important question centers on why, and the answer should shape our spiritual lives, the bishop said.

God did not abandon humanity after its fall from grace through original sin, he said. Instead, God intervened throughout history, such as with the ancient covenants established with his chosen people.
“These covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Moses were chartered agreements between God and his people, to lead them forth to what was called the Promised Land,” Bishop Kemme said. “Time and time again, the people broke these covenants but God would reestablish them to help the people to grow in fidelity, wisdom, and devotion.”

God’s people repeatedly failed to heed his commands, the bishop said, an example often exemplified by their wicked rulers.

“All the while, he would speak to them through the prophets of a promised messiah, that would once and for all redeem them from the incurable wound that was theirs from the original fall in the Garden of Eden,” the bishop said.

“Friends, we must remember these things if we wish to truly know the why of the mystery we celebrate tonight, for on this night long ago, the promise of God was fulfilled. Jesus is that promised messiah, whose birth, life, passion, death and resurrection win back for us our salvation, our redemption.”

And Jesus brought all that about because of his boundless love for each human being, Bishop Kemme said. “This is ‘the why,’” he said. “Let us dare not lose sight of it, for if we do and it seems so many have, we reduce all of this to a cultural holiday, merely a day of mirth and cheer and gift giving. No, this is a holy day, a day in which God chose to act on our behalf. In doing so, our lives have been forever changed, for the real why is that in love God has a plan for you and for me, an eternal destiny, for which he would not even spare his own Son in order to bring it about.”