18th January 2015

Christmas Seems A Long Time Ago? Wrong!
I’m sure there must be a fair few people who come into the church and think we’ve forgotten to take the crib down. We haven’t of course. Whilst most people think Christmas ends after Epiphany or even Boxing Day(!!!) the Season actually ends on February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation. This is the last of “the epiphanies” when Jesus makes his presence known to Simeon in the Temple. For parishioners who come from countries on the continent it is common to keep the crib up for the whole season, but why are we doing it this year?

Christmas is the season that reveals God’s love to us as “human beings” – he took on our human nature, when he was born in Bethlehem. In doing so he sanctified humanity and Jesus would later say, “WHATEVER you do for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, “YOU DO UNTO ME!!”
We must not just celebrate Christmas, we must LIVE IT: and live it as Pope Francis emphasises, especially with the poor.
We must remember though, there is another poverty, that can affect everyone, including those in our wealthier developed world. This too is what Christmas is all about. I remember Cardinal Hume speaking of this when he said…
“My first visit to the Third World changed me. You cannot look into the eyes of a starving child and remain the same. The first relief camp I was able to visit, with my colleagues from CAFOD, was Quiha. The camp was enormous and hundreds of women and children were sitting in groups trying to keep warm with only simple ragged shawls. Many people were just lying on the ground and I sought as a simple priest to give comfort to many who were obviously close to death.  By next morning in this one camp 300 people had died. I still have a vision of a small boy in another centre who took my fingers and rubbed them against his face, and put his fingers in his mouth to show he was hungry. He had only a loincloth around him. He would not let go of my hand. I thought this child is craving for food, craving for love.
There, in a very simple uncluttered way I realised once again the fundamental needs of human beings. They need food just to live, and they need love, to be valued.”