2023 has brought with it many blessings and challenges.
I guess every year does.
This year there seems to have been an intensity accentuated with an array of international, national and local flashpoints.
Wars prevail, the COVID “tail” is still with us, the Voice Referendum results and the effects on reconciliation with our First Nations peoples, high interest rates, recidivist crime and a host of other destabilising influences can make for a “messy” life and yet my experience tells me that Jesus Christ is always best in the mess.
This child who comes at Christmas, who grows up, suffers and dies gives us the reassurance that all will be well regardless of our circumstances.
The reality of suffering in life is real but it is never in vain. God is with us in good times and in bad.
This is our faith, and we hold onto it with both hands.
Needless to say, but Christmas is one of the most important days of the Church year, second only to Easter Itself.
When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the culmination of the mystery of the incarnation.
God becomes flesh and blood for the life of the world.
Our faith invites us into this mystery and we participate in it.
We are made in the image of God and God does not make rubbish.
In our frailness, nevertheless, we move forward in faith as we embrace the greatest Christmas gift of all, the source of all joy.
He is the gift of God the Father who became one of us in all things but sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This gift was first given to many and then to all of us.
This is what we now celebrate – on earth as in heaven.
This is the time of year when we call to mind the mystery of the incarnation and the joy of Christ’s birth.
We stand in awe, and we pray in thanksgiving for the gift of the saviour.
I pray that this gift may not be lost on us or on our troubled world.
I pray especially that this joy and hope will spread and bring peace on earth to you and your loved ones and into the hearts and lives of people of goodwill everywhere.
Bishop Timothy Harris is the leader of Townsville diocese
