Editorial

The first Christmas

Peter Westmore

Contents - Dec 2006 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The first Christmas - Peter Westmore Benedict XVI challenges 'de-Christianisation' of society - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Sydney RCIA conference for 2007 on authentic formation of new Catholics - Paula Flynn 'Lost!' controversy: Archbishop Bathersby's reply - AD2000 Report Catechesis of the Good Shepherd: the Montessori method for RE - Anne Delsorte A 'best practice' guide to priestly vocations Modest dress: Suitable attire for Mass: the moral dimension - Bishop John W. Yanta Religious Life: Tyburn Sisters' communities spread around the world - Tess Livingstone 2006 National Church Life Survey: important questions overlooked - Michael Gilchrist Shrines: Marian Valley: Queensland's centre of pilgrimage - Peter Westmore Letters: Vatican guidelines on Holy Communion for politicians - Vincent Bemowski Letters: A must read for faithful Catholics - Frank Bellet Letters: Liberal Catholicism - Paula Gartland Letters: News from India - Fr Francis Pinto CSsR Letters: Church teaching - Mark Moriarty Letters: Infant Baptism Letters: Community? - Peter Gilet Letters: Christian differences - Alan Barron Letters: True Church - E. Makaus Letters: Linguistics - Matt Bruekers Letters: Liturgical language - Ted Hayhoe Letters: Why apologise? - Concerned Catholic Books: The Shroud Story, by Brendan Whiting - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: COME, LORD JESUS:Reflections on the Advent and Christmas Seasons, James Tolhurst - Michael Gilchrist Events: Advent and Christmas Ceremonies - Priestly Fraternity of St Peter Books: SACRED PLACES, PILGRIM WAYS: Catholic Pilgrimages in France and Belgium - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: Jesus' law of love and the Ten Commandments - Fr Dennis Byrnes

For most of us, Christmas is an occasion for families to come together and exchange gifts, a time of 'peace on earth and goodwill to all men.' It is a reflection of the influence of Christianity that these worthy sentiments have penetrated deeply into our secular and transient culture.

But for Christians, the feast day which commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ is the literal fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel' - a name that means 'God is with us'.

In Jesus Christ, God literally came down to live among us, fully man and, at the same time, fully God, a mystery which even the greatest of minds can contemplate without fully understanding.

As the Apostle Paul commented, through this action alone, God humbled himself to become like us in every way but sin, and finally, to die for us so that we might inherit eternal life. Through his example, he proved that 'God is love', to use the title of Pope Benedict's first Encyclical.

As the English poet laureate John Betjeman wrote:

'And is it true? And is it true?
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?'

For if it is, he says,

'No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.'

Peter Westmore is Publisher of AD2000.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 19 No 11 (December 2006 - January 2007), p. 2