6 Gulf Pine Catholic • December 19, 2025 Last Christmas, I celebrated Christmas Mass at a parish some fifty miles away from home while the pastor was away on sabbatical. On Christmas Day, this year, I will be celebrating Christmas Mass at a nursing home in our nearby town. Last year, the residents didn’t have a Christmas Mass because no priest was available to celebrate it for them. I was wondering how I might approach my homily at the Mass. The theme that sees to keep coming to my mind is that of going home for Christmas. Such a theme might seem ironic, if not misplaced. The song, “I’ll be home for Christmas.” was originally recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943, and it quickly became one of the most popular holiday songs. The song is written from the perspective of a soldier serving overseas during World War 2. “I am dreaming tonight of a place I love even more than I usually do. And although I know it’s a long road back, I promise you. I’ll be home for Christmas. You can count on me. Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree. Christmas Eve will find you where the love light gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams. Christmas Eve will find me where the love light gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.” “If only in my dreams.” The irony of celebrating Christmas Mass in a nursing home is that no one from there is going home for Christmas. They are basically permanent residents in a place that is not their home until they pass on to a more permanent and perfect, eternal home. I remember my first Christmas home in December 2012. Leading up to it, I would ask my, then fifteen year old niece, how do ye celebrate Christmas here? What happens? What do people do? What can I expect?” I’ll be home for Christmas. Who doesn’t want to be home for Christmas. It’s the best place to be at Christmas; home with family. During my 40 years in the States, I missed 40 Christmases at home. During those 40 Christmases, I celebrated Christmas like everyone else, but not at home. Of course, you hoped someone would invite you to their Christmas home and dinner. When all the eating and visiting was over, you went home; home alone to your own house. You tried to connect by phone with family at home. Many times, the transatlantic phone lines were busy without everyone who couldn’t be home for Christmas calling home for Christmas. So, the residents of the nursing home will not be going home for Christmas. So, what do you say to them that might connect them, even in some remote way, with Christmas and a message that might give them some hope. Above any time of year, everyone wants to be home for Christmas. People who are away from home want to be home. People recovering in hospitals want to recover at home for Christmas. People who are at odds with family want forgiveness and peace. But not everyone can be home for Christmas. The undocumented in America cannot come home; the homeless in the doorways of our towns and cities cannot come home because they don’t have one. The refugees cannot come home because they have been banished from their homeland and, in some homes, there is an empty chair, left by someone no longer with us. Isn’t it ironic that the reason home is so important and special at Christmas is because of Someone who made His home among us -- Emmanual, God is with us. Yet, that someone didn’t have a home to be born into that first Christmas; instead, He was born in a stable. Christmas is more than trees and tinsel; more than wrapped gifts and turkey slices; more than Brussels sprouts and red tablecloths. Christmas is more than silent nights and chilly days; more than Christmas cards and Christmas crackers. Christmas is less about some things and more about Someone. It is less about colourfully wrapped presents and more about a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger; not in a cozy house but in a stable warmed by the breaths of its animal occupants. Centuries ago, Someone made a promise; a promise to make His home among us. He prepared for His homecoming for centuries. Along the way, He dropped hints of His homecoming with reminders along the way. But people were too busy, too preoccupied with other things; they missed His homecoming. SEE ACROSS THE POND, PAGE 7 Going home for Christmas Across the Pond Father Tracey The Christmas season is a wondrous time of year, and it is fitting that so much festive tradition has grown around our celebration of the birth of Christ. G.K. Chesterton once wrote a delightful essay about Santa Claus in which he explained that advancing years did nothing to diminish his belief. In his essay, Chesterton writes: “Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can afford no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill.” In his delightful take on belief in Santa Claus, G.K. Chesterton demonstrates how the human imagination can lead us to faith in all that is good and true. He shows how cultivating a sense of faith at Christmastime awakens us to the gifts of God’s creation. The wonder that awakens in our hearts and our imaginations at Christmas stems from gratitude -- and wonder also cultivates gratitude. In the film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Jimmy Stewart’s character George Bailey experiences a crisis of faith when he loses sight of the tremendous blessings of his life. He loses sight of the gift of himself, as Chesterton so colorfully describes himself bursting out of a Christmas stocking. It’s George Bailey’s realization of God’s gifts that opens his heart to the miraculous at work in his life, gleefully celebrating the angel Clarence getting his wings in the ringing of a Christmas bell at the end of the story. Faith in the possibility of such miraculous events is not misplaced but merely a tiny foretaste of the miracles God has in store for those who make leaps of faith in their lives. So we can see how the magic of Christmastime can lead to our hearts leaping for joy throughout the year for the miracles of life itself. The film “Miracle on 34th Street” playfully tackles issues of human doubt through the angst of a girl struggling to believe in Santa Claus. We see what a weight is lifted when those in her life help her to move beyond doubt into a spirit of belief. It’s a story that shows how the wonder of Christmas flows around the hopes and dreams of childhood but ultimately affects everyone. These stories awaken us to the spark kindled in the human heart by the Christmas spirit. We can never have too much awe over the tremendous gift of Christ’s birth. It is so astounding that it requires the exercise of the imagination to allow ourselves to be properly moved by its reality. So let’s never hesitate to embrace all the wonder attached to this time of year because the Christmas spirit can help us to grow in faith, hope, and love for one another. As we gather together with friends and family, let’s share our hopes and dreams and inspire each other to believe that God can touch our hearts and make all good things possible in our lives. It has happened already in the birth of our Savior. All that is needed to kindle the spark of that gift in our hearts is to believe. Fr. Ed Dougherty, M.M., serves on The Christophers’ Board of Directors. For a free copy of the Christopher News Note, GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP, write: The Christophers, 5 Hanover Square, New York, NY 10004; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org. The wonder of Christmas Light One Candle Fr. Dougherty
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