Scottish Catholic Observer

The Christmas Crib has long disappeared from  the public square; statues and images of the Virgin or Child Jesus are getting rarer and rarer in the most Catholic of homes; Christmas carols no longer sing about Christ and you have to go to a ‘very Catholic’ store to buy a Christmas card which has any reference to the Christmas event.

Are we to sit back into our armchairs, sip a gentle wine or not so gentle a whisky and lament these manifestations of our day and era and try to reconstruct the days of yore when the temples of paganism had still to be constructed and their illumined towers were not quite so visible?

Representing the Missionary Society of St James, I have just come from a Missionary Congress, which was held in Venezuela. The message that comes from the congress is clear. Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world with a mission and He has called us to be His helpers in constructing that great dream God has for the world so that love extinguishes hatred; peace overcomes violence; and fraternity unites humanity in one loving family of God.

No one should feel rejected or excluded and all can contribute to this divine plan. If you think that this is a ‘seventh heaven’ dreamland for the idle and frivolous take stock: the Christmas event proves the contrary. The life story of Jesus Christ, that man who came from God and is God, is neither for the weak-minded nor the idle speculative thinkers: the cave where He was born was no palace; the cot where He was placed was not silk lined; the family that hosted Him was not amongst the privileged celebrities of His day. He came into this world in humility, went about His mission with meekness and left this world humbled, submitted to a cruel death on the cross.

The story does not end there: God the Father restored Him to an after-life of glory in Heaven. Christmas is but the beginning of God’s mission.

It reads like a fairy tale with a happy ending but the truth is that the Christ event is just the beginning of a story that unwinds itself daily in the human heart, changing minds and lives of millions, giving hope where there was only despair; light where there was only doubt and darkness; providing for the hollowness and emptiness of the human spirit.

On Christmas night we celebrate the beginnings of this mission of Jesus Christ in our world. It is our opportunity to gain a better understanding of the significance of the Christ event. It is important that we do so because it is the only way to understand the meaning and mission of our own lives: where our life came from, what is the purpose of living and what is our final destiny. Proud, arrogant humanity try to live without God and are making an ungodly mess of God’s world.

First of all we are made to realise that this world is not ‘our world’ but God’s world and He loves His creation—every man, woman, bird or beast, inanimate or animate being that exists and no one is excluded from this divine love. We are neither proprietors nor owners of what exists—God is. We are privileged to have been entrusted by God to be responsible administrators of creation, called to use and not abuse; to build and construct and not to destroy and contaminate. The better we understand the significance of Christ’s coming the better we shall understand the significance of our own lives.

Christ’s coming was proof that God had not abandoned His world and that His love had not grown cold despite the sins of mankind. Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, a kingdom of justice, of love and of peace. That dream of Christ He left with the Apostles and with us who believe in Him when he said: “Go teach all nations.”

At the Missionary Congress of the Americas (above), we discussed the enormity of the task in our day and age.  It is not our task or project but that of Jesus and we, as individuals or as a Church, can only be regarded as collaborators. He is in charge and failure must be disregarded.

The spirit of the congress reflected the joy of being called and the optimism that every true believer can go about his or her task or mission to build up the Kingdom of God.

We should not be oblivious of the problems that exist: mass poverty and hunger; whole scale violence and wars which lead to genocides;  neo-liberal capitalism motivated by greed; economic globalisation and a market economy which respects no human nor religious values; drug trade, abortion and euthanasia, human genetic experimentation… and so we could continue.

As individuals and as a Church we have to be humble and accept that we do not have a ready provided answer to these problems. At the same time we can and have to admit that the current human solutions provided by political and materialistic thinking and ideologies are failing. Failure was never in the mind of Jesus. Even from the Cross, He was directing people to their heavenly goal. With the mind of Christ we can construct a better world; with faith in Him we shall never fail.

We are living, not so much a world of changes but rather a world that has changed. The ‘new morality’ is not the old immorality. Jesus warned: new wine in new caskets! We have to look to new ways of thinking; look at life with the eyes of Jesus who did not come to condemn but to save. As a Church we do not have all the answers, as Christians we do not always think with the mind of Christ; as individuals we are too weighed down by failed human thinking.

The coming of Christ at Christmas announces that that this world of ours is God’s world; that like Jesus we should be able to see good in everything and goodness in everyone; that our task is not to stand in judgement but rather see that goodness and bring it to maturity. I like the reply given by Pope Francis when it seemed he was being challenged to condemn a gay person. His reply was simple: “If he is a person who sincerely is searching for God who am I to condemn him.”

May the joy of being a Christian; of being called by Christ to be one with Him in order to construct a better and godlike world fill your hearts with love and optimism. As you see the plump, dumpy figure of Santa Claus come riding along the street on his sleigh don’t be too critical and judgmental. After all he has come a long way across the cold Artic snows, ignoring modernity’s comforts to spread his munificence with the children of this world. At the same time new wine skins are needed as new wine is flowing.

Christmas blessing to you all. Nollaig mhath dhuibh!

n If anyone wishes to support Fr Colin MacInnes’ missionary effort, donations can be made out to Scottish Catholic Observer Charity Appeal, 19 Waterloo St, Glasgow, G2 6BT