This week in the movie theatres, a movie called “Just Mercy,” which played at the Toronto film festival in September, will be released across the country. This movie tells the story of a Harvard law graduate, by the name of Bryan Stevenson, who turns down a very comfortable law job to go to Alabama and defend a poor prisoner on death row. Stevenson takes up the case of a poor African American by the name of Walter McMillan, who had been falsely convicted of killing a white women. Because McMillan is a very poor African American in Alabama, even though there are many witnesses who can testify that he was somewhere else when this women was murdered, McMillan is falsely convicted and sentenced to death. Hardly anyone cares about his situation and no other lawyer in Alabama is willing to take the time to defend him or show any concern about his situation.
When the Harvard educated attorney Brian Stevenson takes McMillan’s case, none of his family members are willing to believe that Stevenson actually cares enough to do the work necessary to try to free him. They think he has taken the case on simply to say he has defended death-row criminals. It is only when Bryan Stevenson actually shows up in their poor Alabama community, and starts to visit their homes and speaks with McMillan’s relatives, that people start to think that he is serious and really cares about the case. Everyone is startled and amazed that this Harvard educated lawyer is taking interest in Walter McMillan’s case and working so hard to save him. When Stevenson finally succeeds and wins McMillan’s life back, it is seen as the highest expressions of mercy that a person can show for another and changes everything for McMillan and his family.
Stories like “Just Mercy,” which tell of how one person works to save another person are truly inspiring. However, they pale in comparison to the story which we are celebrating this Christmas. At Christmas we celebrate that the Son of God left everything to be born in a manger to save each one of us from death. We had all been condemned because of the sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus leaves everything to come and live amongst us as our saviour and redeemer and to be with us wherever we might go in life.
I know I speak of this every Christmas, but if you or I were to plan out where and when Jesus might have been born, I doubt any of us would have chosen a manger in Bethlehem. In order to get God’s message of salvation out to everyone, the most logical place for Jesus to have been born would have been in a palace in Rome, the capital of the world at that time, as the son of the Emperor Caesar Augustus. In this way, the message of God’s plan of salvation for all people could simply have been announced throughout the entire empire by Caesar’s soldiers and messengers. Or maybe even more effectively, Jesus should have been born today as the child of a high tech executive and He could have just made a great YouTube video to get the message out to everyone. Instead, Jesus is born in a stinky barn, with a bunch of animals, so that all of us, whether we are rich or poor, might be able to relate to Him and hear His message of love for each of us. The message of Christmas is that Jesus was born into the poverty of a manger to save each and everyone of us. While the title of the movie that I spoke to you about at the beginning of this homily was “Just Mercy,” the truth about God and Christmas is that He is ALL MERCY.
A few years ago, when Pope Francis called for the Year of Mercy, I told you a story that I think powerfully describes God’s mercy. Sometimes, I think we can have a tendency to think that God is like an angry passenger in the car with us on the journey of life. When we make a wrong turn in life, or choose to go in a different direction from which He suggests, we can imagine God saying: “Are you crazy, what did you do that for;” or “if you think I am going to help you after you have gone this way and ignored my advice, you are out of your mind.” But really, God is like a GPS system in our car. And in this scenario, “GPS” stands for “God’s Plan of Salvation.” No matter how far off the course we go, no matter how little we may believe in ourselves, the only thing that God has to say to us is “re-calculating.” God never wants to loose us and God never gives up on us. As we celebrate today the birth of Christ, God shares with us the way we are to find our way back to Him. The birth of Jesus shows us the lengths to which God will go to get us back to Him. Christmas announces the beginning of our journeys back to God. Jesus is God’s plan of salvation for each of us—no matter where we may find ourselves. From wherever we are today, Jesus comes to us to recalculate our way back to God without condition or condemnation. He is our salvation. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this day, let us listen to His voice calling us back to Himself and commit to living 2020 on the path to redemption that Jesus has won for each of us.
Merry Christmas and a blessed and happy 2020 to you and all of your loved ones.
Fr. Michael McGourty,
Pastor—St. Peter’s Parish—Toronto.
