Archbishop Timothy Costelloe

This Christmas Message from Archbishop Costelloe was first published in the Record.

In the Christmas story, when the angels appear to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of Christ the angel’s first words are “do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10). They are the same words with which the angel Gabriel greets Mary when he tells her of God’s plan that she should be the mother of the messiah (Luke 1:30).

As Mary’s child grows up and begins his life’s work, he too will say these words many times. When his disciples are caught in a dangerous storm out on the lake he comes to them through the raging wind and waves, walking across the waters, and encouraging them not to be afraid (Matthew 14:27). When he realizes how insecure and unimportant people feel, he reminds them that because God knows and loves them they have no need to be afraid (Matthew 10:31). And when he encounters the women at the empty tomb after his rising from the dead he says also to them, “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:10). Continue reading →

Monsignor John Woods – Diocesan Administrator of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

Christmas is over too quickly. We spend days shopping, then exchange gifts, eat and drink before watching the Boxing Day Test or shop for a bargain or head to the coast or do whatever. Enjoyable, but is that it?

To get perspective on the significance of Christmas, the Church bookends it with 4 weeks of Advent, followed by the 2 weeks of the Christmas Season. While we are watching the cricket, the Church commemorates the Martyrdom of St Stephen (26 December) and then the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents (28 December), sobering counterpoints to an overly sentimentalised and commercialised understanding of Christmas. The baby grows up. The light of Christmas foreshadows the transformation from death to life at Easter.

To engage with Christmas, I encourage you to go to the nativity scene in quiet wonder. Reclaim your lost innocence in the eyes of a baby, so powerless and yet so engaging. The eyes of that baby smile on all of us and on Calvary they will look on both a good and a bad thief. This baby will confound, comfort and challenge and be rejected as too good to be true as he reconciles that which still divides us – life and death, light and dark, heaven and earth, victim and perpetrator, the refugee and the citizen, partisan politicians and the common good, the sick and the healthy, the rich and the unemployed, the loved and the lonely, all of us. Christmas is God’s proclamation that God is with us and loves us not because of who we are or what we do but because God love us. To claim our dignity in Christ and to afford others theirs is to be formed in a healthy community. To deny that dignity through child sexual abuse or any act of unmitigated violence such as the recent shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, does not invalidate the message of Christmas but it does call for a more engaging witness to it in truth and love. One hopes that our Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse and the call for gun law reform in the US will enhance the dignity of all.

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Archbishop Denis Hart

At Christmas, in the person of Jesus, God comes to us.  We not only recall an event two thousand years ago, which changed the course of human history and linked God and human beings in an embrace of love, every Christmas we know God is near.  Jesus was born in a humble stable into a poor family.  Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event.  In this poverty heaven’s glory was shown to human beings.

Many families this Christmas are facing an uncertain financial future.  Some are concerned about care for their children, caring for those who are sick, adequate schooling to prepare them for the modern world.

God’s coming emphasises the dignity of each human being from conception to natural death.  God’s coming is an act of love reminding each of us that no matter what may be the challenges we face we are loved and valued.

All of us, old or young, can learn to value the people that surround us, respect their different points of view and learn that greater peace and happiness comes from giving of our time to others rather than indulging ourselves in food, drink and pleasure. Continue reading →