Feast of the Holy Family 2007

29 December 2007

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ

You may have seen a survey carried out just before Christmas showing that a number of people were uncertain concerning the details of the Christmas story. Some people didn’t know where Jesus was born. Others were unsure as to where Joseph took Mary and Jesus when they fled from Bethlehem. For many people, Christmas is not so much a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a time for families to gather and for presents to be exchanged.

Today, as part of the Christmas story, we celebrate the life of a family – the Holy Family. We celebrate the gift that Joseph, Mary and Jesus were to one another. We celebrate the gift and vocation of parenthood and the gift and vocation to be a child. The family life of Nazareth was not a romantic tale but the reality of the joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments of family life. In the reality of their lives each member of the family was called to enrich the lives of others.

To know that we are a gift to one another and to live that truth is important. Today people often speak and act in such a way that love is distorted and becomes possessive. No one has a right to another person, but all people have a right to life. No one is someone else’s accessory in life because each person has a unique dignity that needs to be respected by all. We are called to have a profound respect for life at all stages and in all circumstances.

Our respect for life should extend to the whole of creation for all life comes from God. To abuse creation is to abuse the Creator. To respect creation is to grow into the mystery of God from whom all life comes and in whom all life is made holy. At Christmas, we celebrate not only the presence of God in the humanity of Jesus, but we recognise that we can discover the presence of God in all that God has made.

The gift of human life is attacked in many ways. Abortion and euthanasia are attacks on individuals when they are in a most vulnerable situation. But the exploitation of peoples lives also occurs through such things as war, terrorism, genocide and abuse of any kind. Racial, cultural and religious prejudice are also attacks on the gift of life. The way in which asylum seekers and refugees are often unjustly treated is an offence against the dignity of their person as too is the human trafficking that takes place in the sex industry. Only recently we have been made aware that such trafficking is taking place in towns within our own Diocese.

People often find their lives are lived in darkness. But to a people walking in darkness a great light has shone in the person of Christ. His presence brings hope where there is despair. In Him we find the One who loves us, heals us, restores our dignity and enables us to know that we are a gift.

In Christ the whole of creation is made new and there is a peace that is creative between God and humanity, between human beings and between the human family and the rest of creation.

As we look to a New Year, St Paul calls us to be open to the message of Christ in all its richness because it is a message of life and hope. Our homes, communities and parishes should be characterised by sincere compassion, kindness, gentleness, forgiveness and above all love. Then we will know the gift that we are and the value of creation.

I wish you all many blessings during this Christmas season and for 2008.

With my best wishes and prayers
Bishop of Clifton

To be read and / or made available in all Churches and Chapels in the Clifton Diocese on the Feast of the Holy Family 29 and 30 December 2007.