“No longer known as ‘Forsaken’, or your country be known as ‘Desolation’” (Is 62:4) 

Those words were first spoken to the people of God in the Bible at a time they were going through great distress.  They were living in bondage in a foreign land.  At Christmas Vigil Mass, God is speaking the same words to us through the prophet Isaiah.  They are words that take a special significance in the lives of Nigerians.

We are not living in a foreign land.  We are living in our own country.  But the hardships we face, hardships of present times, make it look like we are slaves in our own country.  We pray to God.  But our condition has not changed.  Or, if it has changed, it has become worse in 2024. 

But at Christmas we hear reassuring words that he has not abandoned us.  God has not forsaken Nigerians.  God has not ignored Nigeria.  The difficulties we face in life can make us think we are no longer loved by God.  The darkness we face, the economic hardships, a future that looks bleak, these can test our faith.  But God is assuring us that he loves us.

       The birth of the Son of God is what we celebrate at Christmas.  The birth of the Saviour of the world shows that God has not abandoned us.    That is the message of Christmas.  It is good news in the midst of hardships.

       But if God has not forsaken us, if God is with us, are we with God?  God cares for us.  Do we care for God?  Do we care for God if we do not care about our neighbour?  Do we really care for our neighbour if we live as if the world were meant for us alone?

       The birth of the Son of God is God’s offer of a new relationship with him and with our neighbour.  What counts is love.  But quite often, we live as if the only thing that counted is money.  And if, in our hearts, the only thing that counts is money, then God does not count, and if God does not count, then my neighbour does not count.  Selfishness is at the origin of all our problems.  It is not just the selfishness of our leaders, but also our own selfishness.

       The birth of the Son of God teaches us that God has not abandoned us, and the God who has not abandoned us has come into our life.  God has come to share in our pain and in our joys.  He has come to take us out of the pain we cause to ourselves and to one another.  God is offering us a new relationship.  Are we ready for this new relationship?  Christmas means God makes time for us.  Do we make time for God by taking our spiritual life seriously, our prayer life, our reception of the sacraments, our regular and punctual attendance at Mass?  God has not abandoned us.  Have we abandoned God?

       In the Gospel according to Matthew, we read of a man who owns 100 sheep, one of which was lost.  And he left the remaining 99 to go in search of one.  The 100 sheep represent all creatures of God.  The one lost sheep represents us human beings.  We human beings got lost.  But in the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, God has come in search of us, our God has come looking for us because he never abandoned us even when we abandon him, even when our minds are preoccupied with many things, with so many things that we tend to forget and abandon God. 

God is born for us as a child because he loves us, and because he loves us, he has come to deliver us from all the things that keep us down.  He whom we fail to love has come to love us.  He whom we ignore looks with mercy upon us.  God does not wait for us to be good before loving us.  He loves us so that we can become good.  He shows us his infinite love so that we can change and become better persons.    God does not need us.  We need him.  He does not gain anything by coming to us.  We lose everything if he does not come to us. 

We must make room for God in our lives.  It is not just about coming to Church.  We may be coming to Church while our hearts are so crowded that there is no room for God in them.  Nigeria is a land where there is room for Churches.  But whether there is room for God in the heart of the Nigerian is what is not so evident.  Nigeria looks forsaken. Nigeria looks abandoned, because we and our leaders have forsaken God and our country by holding on to our selfish interests, by our ill-will, our desire to outwit one another through acts of insincerity within families and within places of work, in places of buying and selling. 

Christmas is a feast of God’s love.  Christmas is a time to imitate God by working for love, by travelling on the road of good will towards all the people we meet. Things can be better for Nigeria, and things should be better for us.  But we must imitate our God who, in his love, made time for us and came down to us to rescue us from sin.  God could have left us in the state of sin.  But he came to rescue us.  He came to offer us freedom in the coming of his Son Jesus Christ.  God, says St Paul in the Second Reading at the Christmas Vigil, has raised up for us Jesus as Saviour.  Jesus is God’s personal offer of salvation to us.  And, as the angel said to Joseph, Jesus is “the one who is to save his people from their sins.” 

To show that we are celebrating the birth of the Son of God, we need to show good will, we need to show love, we need to work for the good of others by working for my personal good, and to work for my personal good by working for the good of others. 

       The love of God came down to us at Bethlehem.  And this same love comes down to us at every Mass.  The love of God comes down to us whenever we offer this holy sacrifice of the Mass.  Love comes down to us in the word of God, and the word of God becomes flesh on the altar when the bread becomes the body of Christ, and the wine becomes his blood.  Love comes down to us in the sacrament on the altar.

       Are we prepared to receive him?  If I am not prepared to receive him, why am I not prepared?  It is never too late to return to the sacrament.  In the sacrament of holy communion, God who has not forsaken us comes to us in simple bread and wine.  Let us open the door of our hearts so that he may come in.  Let us allow Jesus to come into us so that, through us, he may come into our homes, into our land, into our world.

Our God has not abandoned us.  Let us not abandon God.  Let us receive our Lord worthily.  Let us receive him into our souls.  He will change us, and he will use us to change the face of Nigeria so that our land will no longer be forsaken, no longer abandoned.