Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as one like us so that he could be part of our lives. He came to help us with the challenges and difficulties of daily life.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as one like us so that he could be part of our lives. He came to help us with the challenges and difficulties of daily life.
He experienced human life
Jesus immersed himself in the realities of human life. Like each of us, he loved and was loved, and knew joys, sorrow and fear. He experienced poverty, hunger and tiredness.
Like so many today, he also knew friendship and betrayal, popularity and rejection. He experienced poverty, loneliness and tiredness. Many misunderstood him, some even thinking he was out of his mind.
Ultimately, Jesus experienced great suffering and death. After rising from the dead, he became present to all who seek him in many ways. Each is a way for those who follow him to experience him personally.
Those who seek Jesus know he is risen because of personal experiences of his power helping them in their lives. Their belief is not based solely on history.
Our experience of human life
While there is much that is positive, ours is a troubled society. We see conflict within and between people. So many struggle to keep their marriages and family lives together.
And many are so deprived of loving relationships that they seek others almost solely through computer technology. Others express deep anger through violence, vandalism and other anti-social behavior.
What Jesus offers
Jesus came to offer both the guidance of God to all, and the power of God to those seeking to follow his guidance.
Obviously his way is different from trends in our society. He taught a selfless love that binds marriages for life, nurtures family life and deepens friendships. His focus was on the kind of inner peace that leads to peace with others. These ‘others’ include family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbours.
For many, the change Jesus calls for is too difficult, so their lives do not change. They deprive themselves of his power because they do not pray and worship as he taught.
Christmas – there is another way!
Christmas reminds us all that there is another way – the way of Christ. We don’t have to have so many troubles today.
Christ’s is a different way. It is the way that leads to ‘peace on earth’.
I wish each of you a holy and happy Christmas – a Christmas filled with the hope the way of Christ offers.
Most Rev Gerard Holohan
Catholic Bishop of Bunbury