Homily for Midnight Mass
December 25, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 9:1-6
Psalm 96: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.” What is this darkness into which streams such brilliant light? What is this gloom prophesied by Isaiah? This darkness and gloom is the experience of a newborn child being born in a filthy stable and resting in a trough because he and his parents are not wanted so that there is no other room for them within a human society; valued only for enumeration in the census ordered by Caesar. The gloom of rejection that will shadow this child’s life through His Passion and Death is present even tonight.
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