As we gather to
celebrate Christmas in 2018 it is always with a sense of gratitude that we can
reflect on the blessings we have received since last Christmas. This is even
the case when we have suffered loss, hardship or illness in our own lives
because “Jesus” (Heb. “the one who saves”) is also “Emmanuel” (Heb. “God with
us”) who, in his Incarnation, shares our joys and hopes, our joys and sorrows.
By the very act of entering our reality he gave us the promise of the love and
solidarity of a God whom, led by the Spirit of God, we dare to call “Abba! Father!”
(Rm 8: 15) Even more than that we are invited to share in the divine life and
in doing so mediate God to the world: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in
you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent
me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be
one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely
one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have love them even
as you have love me.” (Jn 17: 21-23)
The annual celebration also
builds on memories of past Christmases so that we are mindful of relationships
that have formed us and the desires that motivate us to be our best selves at
this time of year. We welcome the messenger of peace and ask that his gift of
peace, offered to us after the resurrection, be in our hearts, our families and
our world: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who
announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to
Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.” (Isaiah 52: 7) If we cannot exult in our own deeds we can
still rejoice in the Lord because our future is guaranteed in Christ Jesus: “For
the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their
oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” (Isaiah 9: 4)
The challenge for all
Catholics, in the coming year, is to go forth in our community as “missionary
disciples.” That is, to encounter Christ and to make him known. We do not seek,
as Christians, to impose our beliefs on others rather we have had our own lives
transformed through faith and we wish others to share the joy: “For the love of
Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all;
therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live
no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” (2 Cor
5: 14-15) It is the joy and love we experience in Christ that makes us want to
initiate dialogue with others so as to share this gift, this Good News, which
holds out the promise of the wonderful liberation of God’s saving love to all.
Our society struggles with loneliness, addiction and mental illness – surely,
it remains in great need of such love!
The Christ child did
not stay as an infant in the crib. Likewise, we should not remain as infants in
faith content to be fed with milk and not solid food (cf. 1 Cor 3: 1-3). Christ
is also for us Jesus of Nazareth who went about healing and doing good. None of
us will experience the “perfect Christmas” but we can encounter the mercy and
love of God that makes us whole: “Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but
sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5: 31-32) If we are yet to encounter and experience
Christ in our own lives let us open our hearts to him this Christmas so that we
can say along with the disciples at Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within
us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures
to us?” (Luke 24: 32)
I wish you all a happy
and holy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. Fr Marcus Francis
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