17.12.2010
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN
Christmas Message from the Most Reverend Dr John Neill, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough, Primate of Ireland and Metropolitan.
For many people Christmas 2010 is not one to which they particularly
look forward. Nevertheless the Gospel message of Christmas speaks to us precisely where we are today in the Republic of Ireland. The God who gave himself to us in simplicity and poverty, who in Jesus emptied himself to the point of becoming obedient even to death on the Cross, is the same one who stands alongside us now and ahead of us into the future, and invites us to trust, to follow and to love as God loves.
Such a Christmas message will have little effect on those who are suffering most through financial stress, mortgage arrears, and insecurity of one kind or another, unless something practical begins to happen for them. The reality of Christmas is realised traditionally by the exchange of gifts. For those hurting most, such must go beyond any exchange of gifts. It must be developed in terms of burdens shared, and a deep generosity of heart.
The financial institutions and the public bodies that have squandered so much are under obligation to display patience and generosity to those who simply cannot cope. To ask for this must involve each and every one of us in a spirit of sharing of burdens. We have been a grasping society even if most people have not seen that much of the apparent wealth of the last decade. The expectations of past years have had a profound effect on the mindset of so many of us. It is this that is challenged by the message of Christmas.
The generous and costly love of God which we celebrate at Christmas is discomforting if we remain trapped by individualism, selfishness and greed. It is good news if we begin to share something of that costly self-giving that is at the heart of the message of Jesus. This is summed up by one of the first Christian writers and preachers: “You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich”. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
