Diocesan News
Christmas Message from Limerick Church Leaders
Where is God this Christmas?
In recent months, people have suffered one hammer blow after another. For all of us this has been physically, emotionally and spiritually draining .....and then there is Christmas.
When we experience suffering and loss, the Christmas Story can sound very different. The warm sentimental glow disappears. But that can bring us closer to the reality of the first Christmas. There was no sentimentality in that stable. This was life on the edge. Joseph and Mary were friendless, homeless, and vulnerable as they searched frantically for shelter and a place where the child could be born. I’m sure Joseph and Mary were asking ‘Where is God in all this?’ Had God’s plan gone wrong? If not, could it be that God actually planned that the birth of Jesus was not to be in the security of a home, but exposed to the hardship of the poorest of the poor.
And Jesus continued to live on the edge. He refused the comfort of being a respectable rabbi and instead chose to be the friend of sinners. He stood with the oppressed, the needy, and those whom the religious authorities of his day had denounced and excluded.
The great and the good seldom honour those on the edge. Jesus was a threat to the establishment. Community leaders mounted a propoganda campaign against him, designed to cause such public unrest that those with political power, would condemn and execute him on false charges in order to restore control.
Emmanuel (’God with us’) sums up the message of Christmas. If we find ourselves somehow ‘on the edge’, remember that is where Jesus was born, where he lived, and where he died. On Easter morning the first disciples discovered that Jesus was alive and was still with them in a real and personal way. Jesus offers his companionship to each of us this Christmas
our Lord, Emmanuel”
Rt Revd Trevor Williams
Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe
Rt Revd Monsignor Michael Lane
Diocese of Limerick