G.K. Chesterton wrote that about a hundred years ago. It is still true.
We gather in our homes to celebrate the birth of Someone who was denied a place to stay – a homeless one.
While you and I may be able to celebrate at home there are many who can’t.
Maybe they are broken as a family, or ill or homeless.
Maybe their country is in the middle of war.
So when I gather with my family on Christmas Day I do try to realise that I am very fortunate and that I need to do more to reach out to the needy.
The work of Trocaire, St. Vincent de Paul and many other great organisations continues to ease the lives of so many people and provide hope.
There are many kind souls who volunteer and help in that mission.
But more is needed.
We can always do more. So maybe we should ask then if Christmas is any use at all since year after year we seem to have the same issues – the same problems of poverty and homelessness and conflict.
But all of these problems could be solved by human means alone.
We have the resources.
We could feed the entire world population.
There is enormous waste of food in the developed world.
We could stop fighting and spending vast sums on armaments.
We could build enough modular homes for the homeless.
So why can’t we solve these problems?
Because there is a flaw in our human make-up. We sin.
We can be selfish and grasping and mean.
And we can be generous and caring and kind.
There is a battle within every human soul. This is where we need help. This is the mission of Jesus Christ which we sum up in the words of the Creed –“ For us men and women and for our Salvation he came down from heaven.”
And this is why I do love Christmas - that mysterious thing.
How can we put our finger on what makes it so special?
It is certainly about family and home but it is much more than that.
For me it is all summed up in the crib. I am not great on decorations. I don’t put much pressure on the national grid!
The only ‘decoration’ for me is a simple representation of the stable at Bethlehem.
I get a few blocks of wood and twigs, some hay (years old) and arrange the figures.
The simplicity of it always strikes me. It is all about Jesus Christ being born as truly human and truly God.
Because He is human He knows our human pain and struggle and joys too.
Because He is God He can do things which we are unable to do – like - work miracles, rise from the dead and remain with us with His strong presence every day.
He is in the human heart which tries to do good, to be faithful, to forgive, to care, to reach out. He is in His Word in Scripture and in His Sacraments and He offers His grace every moment of every day if we choose to take it.
We can refuse it or accept it. If we were all to accept fully it we could feed the hungry and house the homeless.
But we tend to look out for ourselves first so that we can have enough.
But when do we have enough?
How hard it is to satisfy the heart. So the struggle goes on – the struggle between light and darkness goes on. The Light is coming into our world again on Christmas Day.
I will never give up hoping that we can change. We can accept His grace as St. John writes in his Gospel “To all who did accept Him He gave power to become children of God”. He is our hope.
Next year Pope Francis invites us to celebrate a Jubilee Year of Hope. What a marvellous idea!
The Holy Father wants us to look forward in hope. He wants us to look up not down. With Jesus we can always have hope because He has overcome all things and has shown us the real meaning of our lives – to know, love and serve God and be happy with Him in heaven by loving God and our neighbour as ourselves.
Therefore we have every reason to be hopeful even in the midst of chaos or meaninglessness.
With Jesus I can overcome my selfishness and reach out more to those that God puts in my way each day, especially my family, friends and neighbours including those I may find it difficult to get on with.
I hope that you have a crib in your house.
Maybe looking at it you can be caught up like me in the mystery of it all. God is coming into our world again. He calls me to Himself.
And in the words of Chesterton again may we accept Christ’s invitation to accept Him, since:
“Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home”.
I wish you a Happy and Peaceful Christmas.
+Phonsie Cullinan