On the first Sunday of Advent, 3rd December, Cork Diocesan Youth Council held their annual Advent Youth Service in St. Fachtna’s Cathedral, Rosscarbery. The Dean of Ross welcomed the young people to the Cathedral and the Rev. Abigail Sines, Associate Minister in Carrigrohane Union, was the guest speaker for the event.
On Wednesday, 13th December, pupils from Templebreedy National School travelled to Cork International Airport to take part in the airport’s program of Carol Singing in the lead up to Christmas. The School Choir was led by Peter Stobart, Director of Music at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, who visits the school once a week to rehearse with the choir. They sang 16 different carols, including Away in a manger, Ding dong merrily on high, and The twelve days of Christmas.
Preaching in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork on Christmas Day 2023, the Bishop, Dr Paul Colton, spoke about the darkness of the present times but emphasised that the message of the angels at the birth of Jesus is still one of joy, peace and hope, and that the message of St John’s Gospel is one of ‘light coming into thte darkness’ of ‘ light which the darkness did not overcome.’ The full sermon is below.
I often think that cultures where and people who celebrate Christmas – the birth, the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ – at night time, on Christmas Eve – are closer to the mark than we are, with our daytime festivities. I’m thinking of places like Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, and outside Europe: Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil, to name a few. The Christians of the early centuries, based as they were in the Northern Hemisphere, knew exactly what they were doing when they harnessed, in their then Roman Calendar, the darkest winter-time day and festival of the year with its turning point from darkness to light, for this particular celebration. Jesus was born at night time – in the darkness, and it was into that darkness that the angels appeared to the shepherds keeping watching over their flock, when? ‘By night’ (Luke 2.8) bringing their message of light and peace:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’ Luke 2.13
The main road to Bethlehem is closed this Christmas. As the Washington Post reported on Saturday (William Booth and Sufian Taha, December 23rd, 2023) – there’s no tree in Bethlehem this year, no lights, no music, no carols, no feasts, and no pilgrims.
In today’s Gospel – Saint John’s teasing out of the meaning of the birth of Jesus – the incarnation of the Word of God – proclaims the good news of light coming in the darkness, just as the angels had done:
‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.’ John 1.5
I don’t suppose there has ever been a Christmas in history when there was no darkness, or indeed, where the peace on earth, announced by the angels, was ever a reality. The promised saviour was, as we heard a moment ago, according to Isaiah, to be the messenger who announces peace, good news and salvation. Instead, in many parts of the world and even in places close to home many sentinels are not singing for joy today. Isaiah spoke about the ruins of Jerusalem breaking into singing. Ruins there are indeed in many places. The Reverend Dr Munther Isaac, senior pastor at The Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, consulted his parishioners, and this year, they created a different crib scene. The baby Jesus is on top of ‘… a pile of busted cement and dirty stone.’ He told The Washington Post ‘This is what Christmas looks like in Palestine, this is the true message.” It’s shocking. It’s not the full story, of course, but it leaves a disturbing impression.
Photos of that crib have gone viral in the international news. ‘Christ in the rubble’ is the headline on the France24 news site. And there are other headlines such as in The Times of Israel ‘Bethlehem plans muted Christmas in the shadow or Israel-Hamas War.’ And not only there, as our young people here in this place reminded us when we met to pray for peace on 19th November last. In too many places there are many who cannot ‘sing [that] new song that Psalm 98 heralded.
And so, for me, those words which we sang a moment ago, written by a Unitarian Minister, Edward Hamilton Sears, in December 1849, It came upon the midnight clear, always jar and hit home year after year. They never fail to resonate uncomfortably; to strike a chord – of discord actually – ‘And man, at war with man, hears not the love-song which they bring:..’ And, so often throughout history, it has indeed mostly been men, with children and women suffering most.
With our euro-centric view of things we might be forgiven for assuming that in his mind, when he penned those words in 1849, were the revolutions the year before – 1848 – in Sicily, Germany, France, Hungary. Maybe he even knew about the Young Irelanders here. He probably had heard of wars in northern Germany and southern Denmark, between Piedmont-Sardinia and Austria, of Croatia attacking Hungary, and Austria invading Hungary, of unrest in Sweden, massacre in Romania, revolt in Prague resulting in the city being bombed by the Austrian Army. He might have read reports of the Chartist rallies in England and, not forgetting in the midst of all that, here in Ireland it was year three of the Great Famine. In Europe a lot of that spilled over into 1849. 1849 also brought war in Spain. The Russian army was in the mix too back then, in Transylvania. And the world isn’t only Europe: the Anglo-Sikh war in the Punjab and the Matale Rebellion in Sri Lanka.
I suppose Sears may well have been aware of many of these wars and conflicts, but where he was, in Wayland, Massachusetts, isn’t it much more likely that on his mind was the Mexican-American War which had trundled on since 1846, following the American annexation of Texas the year before, in 1845, and only ending in 1848, all resulting in an estimated 25,000 Mexican deaths and 15,000 American deaths, not to mention lots of other political consequences: the creation of a border along the Rio Grande, and the ceding to the United States of many states now part of that nation (California, Nevada, and Utah, most of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming). There was a new surge of patriotism but many veterans returned home, broken. Many of those veterans went on to become leaders on both sides of the American Civil War. More conflict and bloodshed. In the light of all that followed, the carol became ever more popular.
Here we are 174 years later still singing it, and tragically the words still resonate: ‘And man, at war with man, hears not the love-song which they bring:..’ Sears’ carol doesn’t mention the birth of Jesus at all, in fact. So in that sense it is not that Christmassy, actually. Its focus is the song of the angels: ‘Peace on earth, goodwill to all…’ It’s a carol about peace. How suited it is, therefore, to this year – every year.
And so we come back this Christmas to the message of that night; to the message of this feast that lifts up and embraces all that worries and concerns us, that rises over the rubble and ruins of places of conflict, that offers hope now and tomorrow, here and everywhere, and holds out peace to us in our condition and situation. And that demands of us, however, we can, wherever we are, in whatever little way we can ourselves to work for and to nurture that peace.
And, to encourage you, it’s this simple point I invite you not to overlook this Christmas: it all happened at night. The angels came and announced the birth in the darkness of night. Jesus was born in the darkness of night. That’s no accident in the narrative. It’s deliberate. This isn’t an isolated instance in the story of the people of God. God often makes himself known to people in their nighttime – Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Samuel, just to mention some. Many of the great events in the biblical tradition happen in the darkness or in the half-light only: the escape from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea. The angel came to Joseph at night. Jesus is born at night. Or as Saint John explained in our Gospel: ‘The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.’ (John 1.9) Indeed, ‘the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.’ (John 1.5). As another Christmas reading resonated in this place in recent days ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined. (Isaiah 9.2).
So, in spite of all that worries and dismays us, that challenges the world order, all that weighs on us personally, where there is illness, anxiety and bereavement, we can indeed, draw solace from the Christmas message that we, in spite of all that is dismal – that we do celebrate today. As we heard from the letter to the Hebrews ‘Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son…’ (Hebrews 1.1-2b)
That’s why the Christmas announcement at the very start of this liturgy ‘unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour who is Christ our Lord’ is indeed ‘good news of great joy’, and hope, peace and light
One of our most treasured Irish traditions of Christmas Eve, as darkness falls, is to place and light the candle in the window, to welcome the holy family, and to announce the coming of the light of Christ. Christmas holds out to us the promise of Christ’s peace and light. And we, in turn, are entrusted with that light of Christ to hand it on and to spread it around.
For each of the Twelve Days of Christmas we are reflecting on some of the events that took place across the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross during December in the lead up to Christmas.
On the 13th December 2023 the Cork Three Faiths Forum launched their calendar for Jewish, Christian and Muslim Feats and Holy Days at a reception in City Hall. The Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Kieran McCarthy greeted the group and welcomed this initiative.
A pdf of the calendar can be downloaded here. For hardcopies please contact the Rev. Tony Murphy.
We send greetings to the people of faith in our city and county of Cork this Christmas: may you be filled with the hope which Christ brings. And we greet all people of good will, wishing you peace and joy always.
Peace is the gift most conspicuously lacking this Christmas. The images from the Middle East on the nightly news are horrifying. In Gaza, men, women and children are starving, wounded, living in fear for their lives. These innocent civilians suffer as did the victims of Hamas’ October 7th invasion of Israel. There seems no end in sight to the pain of the innocents.
The images from Gaza are like those that have been beamed from Ukraine for the past 21 months, since the Russian invasion began. Innocent civilians there seek to get out of the way of the invading forces and those lethal nightly bombing raids.
The invasion of Ukraine has had effects closer to home for us too. Refugees from that war travel across Europe looking for a safe refuge, with some arriving in Ireland. Across Europe the challenge of welcoming refugees has seen politics swing from centrist parties to the extremes. In Ireland, the recent Dublin riots reflected a trend towards violent extremism.
An absence of peace is not the only lack the world suffers. As pastors, we are aware of many other ills
plaguing our people. The shortage of homes impacts on many in our congregations, and we can never forget the homeless men, women and children on our streets. Financial pressures also afflict many families, with more and more finding it hard to make ends meet, as charities such as the Cork Penney Diners and St Vincent de Paul Society – anong many – regularly report.
All these external pressures afflict people inwardly also, causing much anxiety and stress. To these ills, add the loneliness afflicting many older people — and the not-so-old also. Social media often leave people isolated and even more vulnerable.
In the face of all these challenges, Christians might be tempted to give up. But we never do. We pray for deeper faith and meaning in those who search for it, for harmony and peace for all, even when it seems to be slow in coming. And we work for justice and compassion, as the Christ whom we serve keeps whispering challenging words in our ears: “When I was hungry, you fed me … when I was a stranger, you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35ff)”. We have no option but to try to put these challenging words into action, particularly by welcoming strangers and making sure they feel at home in our midst.
We do not give up when our prayers seem to be in vain. For we know that, behind the scenes, in a divine and mysterious way, the Spirit calls even the most belligerent fighters to thoughts of peace, working patiently and delicately to end wars everywhere.
The work of peace includes the work of aid agencies, seeking to help those who suffer in war-torn lands – to bring light inn the midst of darkness. Their efforts to provide a safe-haven for refugees from the war in the Holy Land is a sad echo of the flight into Egypt by the Holy Family with the new-born Christ child.
The Holy Family knows, and we know, that war is not about abstract principles and rights — it’s deeply
personal. Every person left dead or injured belongs to a family whose life is forever changed. Remembering this too increases the pressure on believers never to abandon their work for peace.
The birth of Christ, which is the true heart of Christmas, is a call to each of us to renew our respect for the dignity and life of every person on earth, irrespective of their state of health or life. Only in this way will we lay strong foundations for a peace that will last.
As you journey through the Christmas season and into the New Year, our prayer for you is that you will be blessed with the peace of Christ in your life, the greatest gift of all — and that this will spur you on, to share in the work for “peace on earth and goodwill to all”.
✠ Fintan Gavin
Bishop of Cork and Ross
✠ Paul Colton
Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross
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