Archbishop of Sydney

Christmas Day

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
23/12/2001

For others it is a time of loneliness and dismay; perhaps they are sick, or cut off from the family, or celebrating the first Christmas after the death of a loved one. A hope that Christmas offers something for them too, if they can penetrate below the surface to the basic truths of birth, love and hope enshrined in the feast.

Christmas has many levels of meaning which can teach us many different truths.

As a young boy of about a or a my family took me by ship from Melbourne to Perth to visit my grandmother. While on board a asked some of the passengers to sign my autograph book. One such lucky man was a prominent lawyer, whose name a have forgotten; but a did not forget what he wrote. "Born in castles or cottages, the greatest was born in a stable".

Even those who cannot accept the divinity of Christ acknowledge that Jesus was a wonderful man, and an extraordinary teacher of faith and morals. But he had a most unpromising beginning.

Even by the standards of the time, a stable or a cave for the animals was no place for a grand entry. We are also told that Joseph, Mary's husband, was mystified by her pregnancy, and was proposing to divorce her because he knew he was not Jesus' father. Soon after the whole family was pursued by King Herod's soldiers, because the King feared the birth of a future rival.

Despite this suffering and embarrassment, or perhaps because of it, the love of Jesus' parents carried and led him to a life of wonderful achievement.

Christianity teaches us that a person's worth is not determined by an accident of birth. In Australia too, we share this Christian conviction that the highest human achievement, as well as highest offices, must continue to be open to talent from every section of our community. Only hard work will keep our nation open in this way, and Christmas should remind us of this imperative.

Israel, or Palestine, was a violent place 2000 years ago, but not as violent, mad and murderous as it has become today. We must pray that this spiral to destruction slows, then ceases. We should pray for the peace of Jerusalem; another Christmas task.

But at the deepest level, the Christian claim is that the Son of God became man to teach us and save us. There is an infinity of reactions to such a story. The world often seems far from saved.

Recently a heard of an old African, from a country where 40 percent of his people are HIV infected, who prayed "Dear God. We are grateful you sent your Son among us 2000 years ago. But things are so bad now, you had better come yourself".

But the Christ child was born to suffer and die before He rose. Suffering does not invalidate Christian claims.

Or does it? The English poet John Betjeman puts his finger on the central issue.

"And is it true? For if it is, .....
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple shaking bells,
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was Man in Palestine
And lives today in bread and wine".