The story of Christmas reminds us that it is important to love and remain hopeful.
Matthew’s Gospel describes how the Magi visited the infant Christ and are richly depicted in Gerard Dillon’s High Cross Panel from 1949. Shortly after the visiting Magi had departed Joseph was warned by an angel of the Lord that King Herod was planning to kill all the firstborn male children in Judea to protect himself from the threat posed by the newborn “King of the Jews”. Joseph fled with his family to Roman occupied Egypt. The painting after the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is titled Rest on the Flight into Egypt and shows the Holy Family resting on their journey attended by cherubim. After Herod’s death they were again visited by the angel of the Lord who told them to return to Israel.
In recent times, and not least this year, there has again been much in our daily lives and the news to remind us of the difficulties of our current time, in particular the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Sometimes it can seem difficult to remain hopeful about the world. And yet the solution is not to be fearful but to be confident of what is at the heart of our nation’s common narrative, the values expressed in the Christian story of Christmas.
As a Christian I draw hope from my belief that on that first Christmas day God came among us as a baby born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. His parents were displaced and without their home. The world over the millennia has often talked of value in terms of the material. By these standards Mary and Joseph had little and yet they knew that they had been richly blessed. What they had been given, this remarkable child, they shared with the world. This intimate Christian story invites us to be active in the world and not spectators. By their example Jesus and his parents leave us in no doubt that acts of kindness to one another and a genuine concern for others can transform our lives and the lives of those around us restoring hope. These values are universally held by people of good heart from all faiths and none. The gift of the message of Christmas is that true value and hope are defined by love and service to others, especially those in need. I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.