It was a cold, bleak and wet Christmas Eve. The Church was ready for the carols and celebration. I went to lock the church around 7.30pm. A young man rushed up the steps and asked if he could say a prayer. I said ‘yes, of course’. He rushed back to his car and brought his wife carrying a bundle. I watched as they placed the bundle, in fact a small baby, on the altar of the Lady Chapel, said a prayer and lit a candle. As they left, I said, naively, ‘the baby looks very small’. He replied – ‘my wife is just on the way back home from hospital so the baby is only a few hours old. We must thank God and ask the prayers of Our Lady. This is our custom in Kerala.’ I watched as they left and was astonished. I have always remembered this Christmas birth as I prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. This is Christmas and we receive the best of gifts.

Tonight we thank God for the birth of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our brother, the long-awaited Messiah who has come to save all peoples, forgive sin and promises us a new life with God.

During the darkest and longest nights of the year, the baby Jesus is born in Bethlehem. He is born of a virgin, the Son of God and Son of Man, fully human and fully divine. As we sing in the carol, ‘O little town of Bethlehem’,

How silently, how silently,

the wondrous gift is giv'n!

So God imparts to human hearts

the blessings of His heav'n.

No ear may hear His coming,

but in this world of sin,

where meek souls will receive Him still,

the dear Christ enters in.

In the silence and stillness of the night, the wondrous gift is given. God has come down from heaven and gives his blessings to all people. Christ is born in poverty because there was no room at the inn. He is laid in a manger, a feeding trough for the animals, with hay and swaddling cloths to keep him warm. Born into poverty in an obscure town called Bethlehem, he is the light that shines in the darkness, the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace whom the prophet Isaiah foretells. His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, will be a kingdom of peace built on justice through mutual dialogue and understanding.

This year the celebrations in Bethlehem are again muted by suffering and uncertainty. For the first time in three years, a Christmas tree can be seen again in Manger Square. Missing since the taking of the Jewish hostages and the war in Gaza, it stands again as a sign of hope. It is controversial as suffering continues but a sign of hope that the story of Christmas and the birth of Christ triumphs over all adversity. Love will triumph because it is of God; step by step, from one person to another, slowly and tentatively love enters the world – the ‘dear Christ enters in’. The hope of Christmas shines through love and the faces of those who receive and share love with others.

The promise of Christ urges us to pray for the peace which only he can give. Our world desperately cries out for peace – at a global level with conflicts in Ukraine and the Holy Land and many other countries; nationally in countries becoming more divided by ideologies and prejudice towards those considered strangers and no longer neighbours. Divisions and conflicts grow whether caused by racial or religious prejudice.

God enters humanity to bring us home to God. The peace of Christ invites us to respect the dignity of every person because we were once all like that baby: innocent and vulnerable, needy and dependent on others like Jesus.

Peace begins with the conversion of our own hearts. This Christmas may the hardened heart be softened by love and the power of God’s grace; may selfishness and greed be turned to generosity and gratitude; may pride become meekness and humility. Then ‘the dear Christ enters in’ and love reaches out to the sick, the lonely, the unloved and the needy, the weakest and poorest in our midst. Love is the true gift of Christmas: the love of God who sent his Son to be Saviour, and our love which reaches out to others and brings the joy and hope of Christmas to them.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and peace and blessings for the New Year.