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Text: Archbishop of Birmingham at Midnight Mass


Bishop Longley -  M Mazur

Bishop Longley - M Mazur

In his Christmas homily, the Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley highlights how the coming of Christ at Christmas calls us all to step out of our comfort zones and reach out to others in need.

“God’s coming into the world inspires us as Christians to reach out ourselves so that the mission of Jesus Christ becomes our mission too. We can all be people and communities who reach out to others in need.”

Whether that be the needs of refugees and economic migrants who “are often anxious and fearful about the future and feel they have no one to turn to.”

Or those whose ‘lives have gone astray through the influence of drugs or criminal behaviour.” The Archbishop asks us to “pray for and support those who have been the victims of crime as well as for those who are separated from their families because they are now in prison.”

During this season, he says we also pray very especially for “the Arab Christian communities of the Holy Land and the Middle East. In so many countries where Arab Christians have lived for centuries alongside their Muslim neighbours in peace their very existence is now threatened. Churches in Iraq and Syria, in Egypt and in the Holy Land itself feel that there is now no room for them. Yet they have a vital contribution to make to the long-term peace and stability of their countries.”

And remember “the members of our armed forces and armed forces personnel whose duty keeps them in Afghanistan or other troubled areas, far from their loved ones at home and feeling the distance particularly at Christmas.”

Midnight Mass will be broadcast live from St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham on BBC Radio 4. The Mass begins at 23:30.

Text: Christmas Midnight mass at St Chad's Cathedral

There was no room for them at the inn.

Tonight we come together, here in the Cathedral or via radio, to welcome Jesus, the Son of God, who has come into our world to be close to us – Emmanuel. Even for those who may find it hard to believe in the Incarnation or whose faith is not strong the Christmas story has echoes that resound through their lives, just as they do through ours.

How can we enable people to see the meaning of the Christmas story? Year by year we must listen to the story again and prove that it means something of value to ourselves. Like the parables of Jesus, the account of his Nativity in the Gospels is meant first of all to engage our interest and attention – to touch us so that eventually we can see the inner meaning of a story that has become familiar and part of our lives.

The wonder of this celebration is that the majesty and power of God are revealed in the poverty and helplessness of this tiny child and the vulnerable little family into which he has been born. For us it is symbolised in the crib set up here in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral, the crib that you will find in all the churches of the diocese. The crib depicts the sparse conditions in which Jesus Christ was born. Its setting within the beauty and grandeur of our Cathedral is a reminder of the eternal dwelling place of the Father. The contrast is there for us to see – that God leaves all that we long for in heaven to make heaven on earth for us.

At Christmas God left what we might call his comfort-zone to enter a world of uncertainty and strife – the reality of our world. He so loved us that he would not simply leave us on our own with no-one to guide us or to lead us. But the way he chose was to share our experience and to allow us to glimpse his glory through the helplessness of his Son born at Bethlehem. It is the way of love, to draw us through what is familiar to see the hidden truth within us and within our own experience – that we are loved by God with an intensity and passion that we can hardly believe or ever fully understand. That is the message of the crib.

God’s coming into the world inspires us as Christians to reach out ourselves so that the mission of Jesus Christ becomes our mission too. Pope Francis captures this thought in Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel. He says: Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel.

We begin by being touched ourselves by the birth and coming of Christ. For each of us there will be some aspect of this familiar story that stands out afresh this year. In St Luke’s account it is the stark reality that faces Joseph and Mary, the circumstances that surround the birth of Christ, that seems especially significant. There was no room for them at the inn.

A couple who are far from home because the Roman law requires it. A pregnant woman on the point of childbirth and weary from the days of travelling from Galilee to this little town south of Jerusalem. A husband desperate to find them some shelter and a place to rest – unwanted and unwelcome. This was the plight of those who were closest to our Lord at the very outset of his life. This was the reality of the world that God loved and wanted to enter and to change.

Pope Francis asks us this Christmas to look at our cities with a contemplative gaze, a gaze of faith which sees God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares. He urges us to identify what he describes as the non-citizens…half citizens and urban remnants because ours is a Church which, when confronted by the outcasts or the leftovers, does not declare there is no room.

Every Christmas the details of the Nativity story urge us to be people and communities that do welcome others, especially the stranger who is in need, and to pray for those who are far from their homes and their loved ones for many different reasons. Refugees and economic migrants are often anxious and fearful about the future and feel they have no one to turn to – many find in their local Christian community friendship and support.

In this season we pray especially for the Arab Christian communities of the Holy Land and the Middle East. In so many countries where Arab Christians have lived for centuries alongside their Muslim neighbours in peace their very existence is now threatened. Churches in Iraq and Syria, in Egypt and in the Holy Land itself feel that there is now no room for them. Yet they have a vital contribution to make to the long-term peace and stability of their countries.

We also remember tonight the members of our armed forces and armed forces personnel whose duty keeps them in Afghanistan or other troubled areas, far from their loved ones at home and feeling the distance particularly at Christmas. We pray for them that the Prince of Peace may touch and restore goodness to the hearts of those who seek change only through violence or threats.

Nearer to home we remember those who feel there is no room for them because their lives have gone astray through the influence of drugs or criminal behaviour. We must pray for and support those who have been the victims of crime as well as for those who are separated from their families because they are now in prison.

We recognise that the problems of the world are many and complex but nothing of this can deter or separate us from God’s love, forever revealed in the child of Bethlehem. He came to benefit all mankind and to offer light to those in darkness, freedom to those bound by oppression, sin or selfishness. We are all still in need of these gifts and graces and we will receive them again tonight as the Lord comes to us in Holy Communion during this Mass.

In these days of Christmastide we can make Christ once again present with his compassion and understanding. May there always be room for Christ in the inn of our innermost selves so that he may make a welcome there for others. May the new-born Christ bring his blessings now and in the year to come to you and all those who are dear to you. A blessed and happy Christmas!

Source: CCN

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