In a packed Christmas Mass on December 24 at the Church of the Gesù, University President Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ reflected on the nature of Christmas and of expectations.

“We may turn to Christmas to fix many broken things but what it does best is break one thing: expectations,” Villarin said in his homily, which was built around the short film “An Unexpected Christmas.”

The film portrayed the council in Heaven before the birth of Christ, emphasizing how the birth of the Son of God to a carpenter and his wife in a stable was entirely unexpected.

Villarin noted the need to suspend expectations at Christmas and to immerse oneself in the mystery of Christ’s incarnation and find hope. “Expectations can get in the way of God’s loving us.”

“If in our lives we have grown to expect only distance and disconnection, let our gathering tonight break that terrible expectation. If we have come to know only separation and isolation, let our Christmas communion tonight dispel that desperate prediction.”

There was also the affirmation that there is no need to lose optimism at Christmas. Villarin explained that the word “expectation” comes from ex-spectare, a Latin word that means “to look out.”

“Tonight, there is no need to look out in the distance—out of ourselves—anymore. We only need to look in, to look inside us, into our very hearts to find God again,” Villarin said.

The homily ended on a hopeful note, with the call to let love grow within each person. “Tonight, in the incarnation, because of this mystery, love is now mingled with flesh, woven into our humanity,” Villarin said.

“When love grows, as it still grows in hearts of earth like ours, it grows all the greater, beyond all expectation. Even God, perhaps, won’t be expecting that.”

The full transcript of Villarin’s homily, “Expecting,” is available here.