Nativity of the Lord, Christmas 2025
We must honor our past, live in the present and be prepared and ready for the future!
Deacon Patrick Constantino | Photos courtesy Patrick Constantino
God always has a new plan for every year, even if we are not ready!
His message is to continue to grow in love in Him, and He in me! To live and honor His beginnings and past, and grow in the Spirit of the present and become who He wants us to be! Let us reset our life and faith according to his will!
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke (2:15-20):
When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart, Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
Good morning everyone! Merry Christmas! What a joy it is to gather with all of you and celebrate such an incredible mystery. And we need mysteries. It seems with each passing generation fewer and fewer things remain a mystery, as more and more things about our world get figured out or discovered or explained.
Think for a moment about your grandparents and what the world was like when they were the age you are now. And think specifically about all the things we know today that they didn’t know, all the incredible advancements in science and technology that would seem like magic to them if they were here, all the stuff that was a mystery to them that we now have explanations for. Yes, with each passing generation many mysteries from the past vanish. It seems like only a few remain.
Which category does Christmas fall into? I wonder sometimes if much of what we believe in faith loses a certain special-ness with each passing year. Things that amazed us when we were younger start feeling common, ordinary, routine. A perfect example of that is the Creed.
Most of us have said it so many times we no longer even think about the words. It’s sort of like a kind of spiritual alphabet we memorize but rarely contemplate. And yet, almost every sentence of it is remarkable, almost every sentence of it a profound declaration, almost every sentence of it a mystery that can never be explained away, almost every sentence of it a mystery that can never be explained away.
Is Christmas still that? Or has it become a little too familiar, a little too common? Does Christmas after having been part of our lives for so long now make perfect sense? Or does it still have the power to make us realize just how amazing our God is? In other words, does it still make us want to shout. “I can’t believe that God loves us that much.” So much that healing our broken world was and is his ultimate concern. Refuse to remain at a distance. Wanting instead to be in an intimate communion with all of creation. Chose not to simply appear to his sons and daughters but actually became one of them. Assuming a human nature and immersing himself fully in our journey. Refused to force himself into the word. Choosing instead to ask the cooperation of, the yes of a humble woman from an ordinary town in a sleepy corner of nowhere.
Is able to show us not simply who He is but who we are called to be. Came to us meekly, quietly, unassumingly, in a vulnerable way—showing us that true power is not what we think it is. Helped us realize that God doesn’t act despite the world, despite his creation but actually through it—giving you and me a chance to cooperate with his plan and help transform world into the beautiful, loving, peaceful place He created it to be.
The mystery of Christmas teaches us all of that—reveals to us a God unlike any god ever thought of or imagined, reveals to us a God who human beings never could be possible.
Our God is the opposite of ordinary. The opposite of predictable. The opposite of disinterested. The opposite of vengeful. The opposite of distant. Rather, He’s a God who wanted and wants to be near us, wants to be one of us, wants to guide us, wants to save us, wants to dwell with us—not just alongside us but within us—within every human heart open to His grace, open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. What a God we have!
And so, as you gather with family and friends and do all the things you usually do this day, all the usual traditions and all the usual foods and all the thanking God, prayers and songs, usual exchanging of presents—make sure you don’t include the miracle of Christmas, the mystery in with everything else you’ve done year after year.
Rather, let’s truly think about the meaning of this day—not just the meaning of that day long ago but the meaning it has for each of our lives in this time and place. For once you start to unpack the mystery, once you start to unwrap it—you’ll find there is simply more and more mystery to be in awe of, more and more mystery to be grateful. And don’t try to explain it! Embrace it! Live it! You’ll find out, that is part of the future God has in store for all of us.
Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas, and Happy New Year 2026.
Jesus, I trust in You! Amen!
Deacon Patrick Constantino retired from active Ministry on July 1, 2022. He is still a Deacon in good standing with full faculties to perform all sacraments in the Diocesan of Honolulu Hawai‘i. Constantino has been ordained for thirty-seven years. He is the first Filipino Deacon in the Diocesan of Honolulu. Prior to his ordination, Constantino was in government—first appointed in 1966 as Assistant Sergeant of Arms by the Speaker of the House Elmer F. Cravalho. When Cravalho became Maui’s first Mayor, Constantino became his Executive Assistant—the first of Filipino ancestry. Later, Constantino became the first County Treasurer of Filipino ancestry and the first County Grants Administrator and Risk Manager of Filipino ancestry. Constantino is married to his lovely wife Corazon for sixty-four years. They are blessed with four children, eleven grandchildren, and fifteen great grandchildren.