Christmas Message
Dear friends at St Mary’s,
On behalf of the friars of the parish and the staff at St Mary’s, I would like to wish each and every one the blessing of the Christ-child!
Christmas has always been a magical moment in many societies around the world and many Christian families gather to spend time together and to attend Church as a family.
Here in Singapore and at St Mary of the Angels, we have also been spiritually preparing ourselves with the last weeks of Advent.
We have had an Advent campaign to help us understand better the dignity of the human person, the inherent human dignity that comes with being created in the image of God and how we should together overcome the scourge of human exploitation at all levels.
Materially, we have also embarked on repairing, maintaining and polishing up our timberworks in the church to keep this church a fitting place to worship God.
Christmas has been the one Christian celebration that in more recent times have reached out to the world and permeated its secular sense of celebrations. Although not much mention is made of the reason for this yearend celebration, I suspect the human spirit senses that this season is something special to humanity.
The spirit of generosity that is evident and of course often exploited by crass commercialization, nevertheless, offers a moment of respite from our need for domination, of being ahead in everything, and the relentless adrenalin that feeds the competitive culture in homes, schools, offices and yes, even among friends.
At Christmas, we celebrate in an almost unbelievable simplicity, the great generosity of God. In the poor and humble setting of the Christmas Crib, we are invited to pierce the mystery of this humble God. If not for divine generosity, how else can we explain such disarming paucity?
Yes, it does seem strange and out of place for us to be so well dressed to celebrate the birth of our Christ-child who was born in poverty!
However, it is fitting that we should be dressed for a celebration, for the reason which gave us Christmas Day. It is important for us though not to forget the reason for our celebration.
Dear People of God, as we look ahead to 2012, we also recall the generosity of God in our own days. 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Ecumenical Council of Vatican II. It was a tremendous moment in the life of the Catholic Church when in 1962, the Pope together with Cardinals and Bishops the world over, assembled at the Vatican to chart a way forward for this ancient church. Many recalled that that was the springtime of hopes and visions.
Fifty years later, we have not lost sight of the hopes and visions of this great council. The Popes that were given to the Church in the years following this great Council were prophets and visionaries that implemented faithfully the hopes, dreams and changes that have brought the Catholic Church to where it is today.
With Christmas, we continue to acknowledge the same generosity of God with which Jesus came among us. Today, we continue to celebrate the humble and simple presence of God among us. Sometimes, we have also, like people of old, failed to recognise Jesus among us, hidden in the simplicity of his presence.
May this Christmas invite us to go back to basics; to the basics of human relationships, minus the manoeuvrings and the guessing of ulterior motives.
May we accord to each and every one, the same generosity of a simple friendship.
May the Christ-child of Bethlehem invite us to also view and accept God in his simple gesture of Love for all of humanity.