Dear brothers and sisters, in the second and the third Sunday of Advent, the gospel talks about John the Baptist two times in row, calling us to prepare our heart, to make a straight way for the Lord.
A Christmas quip goes: “Don’t get so preoccupied in what the world has to sell that you miss what God has to give."
Advent and Christmas have been celebrated in a variety of different ways across the SVD Australia Province, from multicultural carols to Christmas lights, concerts to shared meals and gifts – all with the common theme of highlighting Jesus as the reason for the season.
From the Indigenous communities in the Tiwi Islands, Central Australia, Daly River and Balgo to city suburbs in Australia and New Zealand and across to villages in Thailand and Myanmar, the Province has expressed a range of different cultural celebrations of Christmas.
This Christmas will not only open a Jubilee Year for the Universal Church, declared by Pope Francis, but also comes as the Society of the Divine Word celebrates its 150th Jubilee Year.
The theme of the SVD Jubilee is ‘Witnessing to the Light: From Everywhere for Everyone’ and that theme makes a great Christmas meditation, because it was on that first Christmas, more than 2000 years ago, that the Light of Christ came into our world. And we, as followers of Christ and missionaries, are witnesses to that Light.
In Australia and New Zealand, we are familiar with the presence of people on TV using sign language. When an important announcement is made, the speaker is accompanied by an interpreter who uses sign language to speak to the deaf audience.
Christmas is always a feast of Light, emphasising Christ is the Light born into the world and shining in the darkness. We see lot of lights in Christmas decorations as a symbol for that meaning.
Most of us would want to have an eventful day so that we may feel that our day has been productive for us. In the gospel for today, it is an eventful day for Mary and Joseph as they presented the infant Jesus at the temple.
Christmas is being celebrated in a range of different ways throughout the SVD Australia Province, but at the centre of it all is the birth of the Christ-child in Bethlehem.
Several parishes across the Province held Christmas carol gatherings, while in others parishioners donated Christmas hampers for those in need, and in poorer parts of the Province, basic food staples were given to parishioners to help them celebrate.
Advent is drawing to a close and as you receive this edition of In the Word in your inbox, the joy of Christmas is just days away.
This Christmas, as we struggle with the reality of significant conflict in our world, the impact of the loss of the Voice Referendum for our indigenous brothers and sisters, the cost-of-living crisis which affects us all, and general exhaustion after a long year, we look more than ever to the coming of the Prince of Peace at Christmas.
How many of us whenever Christmas comes around, can’t wait to open up our gifts? Whenever somebody hands us a gift, we try to shake it, press on it to feel what could this be.\
Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/svdaus
