Author: Brendan Coffey

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB

The Mass is a place of encounter. We, the baptised are called by the Holy Spirit to celebrate together the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. At the Mass we encounter and listen to the Word of God which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our paths. This light is necessary as we so often find ourselves in dark places either due to our own actions, those of others, or sometimes by chance. The Word shines a light in our darkness that the dark cannot overcome.

The readings today provide an indication of the illuminating power of the Word of God in various situations. First up is Jonah who has been commanded to go to Nineveh and proclaim: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed”. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, a nation that is foremost among Israel’s enemies. This wicked city is unlikely to respond to a Jewish prophet. Jonah didn’t want to go there but finally accepts the Lord’s command. He is fearful that what the Lord says will not happen, and that he and the Lord will be shamed. The people of the city from the greatest to the least repent, fast and pray, so that the Lord changes his mind. The physical city of Nineveh is not destroyed and so Jonah is in one sense proved right. However the wickedness of the city is no more, so in a more real sense, the preaching of God’s word has destroyed the old Nineveh and something new and wonderful emerges. Might this transforming word have something to say to us in Ireland? Might this word have something to say to us at Glenstal, monastery and school, that we might be transformed? Might we have the courage to recognise failings and be open to new possibilities?

St Paul relativises all human possessions and relationships. The kingdom is coming. Possessions and concern for status will only weigh us down. God is calling us his children to take our places in the Kingdom. God calls us for who we are, not for what we have. Today, there is a real need to reconnect with who we are and who God wants us to become. God’s word has been sown in our hearts and knows us better that we know ourselves. The Word knows our deepest desires for life and happiness and so is best placed to guide us. This is why St Benedict places so much emphasis on listening to the Word in his Rule – monks are to spend about a third of the waking hours of each day reading and listening. The Word of the Lord calls out daily to each of us but how often do we listen?

Jesus proclaims the Good News to the people of Galilee, a word that is also spoken to us: “The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.” Now is the time, near is the kingdom, best is this Good News for us all. Much like the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, and James and John, we have doubts, personal failings and weaknesses, but God’s word works in and through us. We have only to take up the invitation, to let the word perform its surgery on our hardened hearts and so make them hearts for love. The unlikely transformation of Nineveh, the greatest of sin, and of the all too ordinary fishermen with their weaknesses, should encourage us.

We may be in dark places, we may have personal failings, but God’s word lightens the darkest places and strengthens the weakest parts of ourselves. Let us open our eyes to the divine light and listen to the voice of the Lord, whose Word is the best compass for navigating our personal journeys, who guides our hearts to choose the way of life and happiness and who ultimately will bring us to our true harbour, life with the Trinity in eternity.

On Saturday 10th February 2024, you have the chance to learn about the Psalms’ enduring spiritual power through talks and guided readings by the monks of Glenstal Abbey.

The monastic day is punctuated by the praying of the Psalms which, over time, are intended to penetrate every thought, word, and deed of the monk. During this day of talks, the monks will seek to share the treasures of the Psalms and to reveal their enduring spiritual nourishment for every stage of life.

Columba McCann OSB will explore some of the many ways in which the Psalms function in the liturgy, whilst Pádraig McIntyre OSB will share some personal readings of the Psalms. Starting with Columba of Iona, Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB will explore how the Psalms shaped the spirituality, theology and art of medieval Irish Christians. Simon Sleeman OSB will explore the Psalms in dialogue with contemporary scholars.

• 9.45am – Registration
• 10am – ‘O God, we ponder your love within your temple: Psalms in the Liturgy’ with Columba McCann OSB
• 10.45am – Morning Coffee
• 11.05am – ‘The Psalms: My Prayer’ with Pádraig McIntyre OSB
• 12.10pm – Mass
• 1pm – Lunch
• 2.15pm – ‘The Psalms in the Irish Tradition’ with Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB
• 3.30pm – ‘Praying with Open Eyes’ with Simon Sleeman OSB

Taking place Saturday 10th February 2024 from 9.45am to 4.30pm. Cost €70.

For more information and enquiries please contact events@glenstal.com or call 061 621005.

Fr John O’Callaghan OSB

Today’s readings are about recognising good leaders. How does one identify a good leader? How does one find a good guide, an inspired guide, so as to make your life a success? The world is full of people, most obviously on the international stage, who want to be our leaders. Some of them could be disasters and to vote them into power might be the last exercise of your freedom. There might be people in your own vicinity who want to be local leaders, but are they the right ones, for your team, your class, your organisation? Today’s readings gives us a lesson in the biblical idea of recognising the right leader.

The first reading gives us an example with the boy Samuel. He himself was an answer to prayer (as his name in Hebrew indicates). In gratitude his mother dedicated him back to God to serve in the Temple at Shiloh. It was there, in the presence of the Lord, as we read, that he “grew up, [and] the Lord was with him”. We are told that he was entirely at the disposal of divine inspiration: ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening’. And we are told a little further on that ‘the word of Samuel, was as the word of the Lord’ for all Israel. Much good come from this listening: for example Samuel was able to identify David as the future king of Israel, choosing him out of a confusing array of brothers. And it was from David’s line that the messiah was to come. The role of Samuel the prophet was to listen and communicate the will of God. Prophets in the Old Testament did not predict far off future events; no, they were voices who understood their present time from God’s point of view and therefore they could show the right way forward.

Thanks to another prophet, namely John the Baptist, Christ is pointed out in today’s gospel as the leader to follow. We are told that, like Samuel, John had been born in answer to prayer; that he “grew and became strong in spirit” that “among those born of women there was none greater than him”. He testified to the Jesus as Rabbi, teacher of the Jewish scriptures; as the long-awaited Messiah, fulfilling the religious traditions of Israel; and the ‘Lamb of God’, in other words the one who would reconcile all humanity with God by his death and resurrection. The Baptist, at the cost of his own life, testified to Christ as the greatest leader, the greatest guide of all time. And Christ would also fulfil the role of king, but of an everlasting kingdom. Today’s gospel reiterates the Baptist’s inspired testimony for us.

And what does our leader have to say to us? ‘Seek first of all the kingdom of God, then the rest will also be given you!” Such is the way to a successful and fruitful life! Christ is saying that there is an ordering of priorities in a successful life. If we exclude this first priority, seeking the good kingdom of God, then no matter how ambitious we are, no matter how many useful things we may do, somehow it will disintegrate in our hands. The technical achievements or our times are an obvious example. They make many things easier and better and so often are marvellous but they also bring us into new and dangerous territory, even to the possibility of annihilating ourselves. We could loose our way in trackless wastes if we abandon the direction and values of the kingdom of God. We are to use our talents for the good of God’s project with humanity. And each person has his or her special place on the team. With the help of lesser prophets, sometimes our friends, parents and the church, God guides us. Someone will say the right word to us, at the right time and in the right way, and that will lead us on to make our special, unique, irreplaceable, contribution to the building up of God’s everlasting kingdom.

Today’s gospel identifies for us our leader and he makes his voice heard even today. Like the young Samuel and the first disciples let us seek to hear and follow it.

Fr Martin Browne OSB

On the first day of Christmas….. we didn’t sing at Mass about a partridge in a pear tree. Instead, Midnight Mass began with some lines from Psalm 2: ‘The Lord said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.’  Today, as we bring our Christmas celebrations to a close with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we hear very similar words in the Gospel. Not from an oracle or prophet or preacher, but from the Lord God himself. ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

It is almost as if our entire Christmas celebration is framed by these powerful and striking declarations of who this Jesus of Nazareth is. On Christmas Eve, we heard the words of a psalm, an inspired poetic song, honouring a king, which Christians have long heard as pointing towards Jesus, as we contemplated the birth of the infant Jesus. Today, we heard the voice, not of prophets or seers, but of God the Father himself, as the adult Jesus emerged from the waters of the Jordan. The words were the same: ‘You are my Son’.

Of course the line from Psalm 2 and the line from today’s Gospel were not exactly the same. The second half was different. On Christmas Eve we heard ‘today I have begotten you’, whereas today we heard ‘with you I am well pleased’. The first, like a man putting his name on a birth certificate – an acknowledgement of paternity; the second, like a man giving his son a major role in the family business – a seal of approval, and a kind of commissioning: ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

To stretch the metaphor a little bit more, we could ask what was the ‘family business’ that the Father was entrusting to the Son? In a word: Salvation. We hear the word a lot in our worship and prayers, but despite that, it can feel a bit obscure or even slightly embarrassing to us today. But salvation is what the crib and the Baptism are about, and salvation is what the Cross and the empty tomb are about too. Salvation. Jesus – the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One – came to save us. Indeed the Holy Name itself can be translated as ‘the Lord saves’ or ‘the Lord is salvation’.

St Gregory of Nyssa expresses well why sinful humanity needed a Saviour: ‘Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Saviour; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator’. So that we might be healed, raised up, and rise again, and so that he might bring us light, a Saviour, help and liberation, Jesus came among us, sent by the Father. ‘It was in him, before the foundation of the world, that the Father chose us and predestined us to become adopted sons and daughters, for in him it pleased the Father to re-establish all things [LG 3].

The nativity scene depicted in our cribs invites us to adore. To savour and delight in the mystery of God-made-man, of God-with-us, and – with the Magi – to worship him. Still kneeling in wonder before this mystery, today’s feast begins to draw our attention from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, from the crib to the Cross. The only Son of God was born as a helpless baby in Bethlehem. At his Baptism in the Jordan, he began the public life that would lead to him dying, as the Suffering Servant, in Jerusalem. His mission begins with his Baptism.

St Mark tells us that John was ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins’. Having taken on human nature and been born in the flesh, now, at the beginning of his public life, Jesus undergoes an experience intended for sinners, but he had no sins to confess. Could God’s care for humanity be made any clearer? ‘He allows himself to be numbered among sinners; he is already “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. Already he is anticipating the “baptism” of his bloody death. Already he is coming to “fulfil all righteousness”, that is, he is submitting himself entirely to his Father’s will: out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. The Father’s voice responds to the Son’s acceptance, proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. The Spirit whom Jesus possessed in fullness from his conception comes to “rest on him”. Jesus will be the source of the Spirit for all humanity. At his baptism “the heavens were opened”- the heavens that Adam’s sin had closed – and the waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new creation’ [CCC 536].

We began today’s Mass by blessing and sprinkling water, in commemoration of our own baptism. We give thanks for that glorious moment when we were washed in the waters of new life and incorporated forever into the Body of Christ, our Head.  As we heard at the Christmas Vigil, we now share in God’s own nature. As a great early Christian writer teaches us: ‘Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father’s voice, we become sons and daughters of God.’

Surely, there has been no greater moment in our lives.  We give thanks for it. But let us give thanks too for the Baptism of the Lord, that moment when, after decades of hidden life with his family in Nazareth, he began the work he was sent to do. What the Magi recognised him to be – the Messiah – was now revealed to a larger audience by the waters of the river Jordan, and confirmed by the Father who sent him. ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

‘O come, all you peoples, worship him!

Praise to you, Lord, for your glorious Epiphany which brings joy to us all!

The whole world has become radiant with the light of your manifestation!’

Fr Abbot Brendan OSB

I know next to nothing about the world of social media. As far as I am concerned tiktok is what a clock does and Instagram is a new measurement of weight. However, I recently came across a new category of celebrity, which I found rather fascinating, the influencer. For those of you who are as ignorant as I am, an influencer is someone with a large number of followers on social media. Cristiano Ronaldo has 616 million followers and Selena Gomez 429 million! One post from an influencer promoting your latest brand of shampoo can be far more effective than ten highly expensive advertising campaigns. Long before the dawn of the internet, influencers were of a very different variety. The Magi were one such, and in the ancient land of Israel, their exotic and unexpected arrival was the talk of Jerusalem.

Epiphany is a Greek word and it literally means ‘to draw back the veil’. People are essentially curious and whether that curiosity is about the exotic Magi, or the twenty first century influencer, we want to know, everything!

Whenever you hear of epiphanies in the Gospel, it means that God is drawing back the veil that covers a great mystery and all of us can peer into this mystery.

This is what happened at Epiphany. What did the Magi see when the veil of God was drawn back? The child with Mary, his mother; yes, but they were also given to see beyond the obvious and into the mystery and they fell on their knees and Christian worship began. Adoration is the lesson of Epiphany; it is the most we can give, and to adore is to acknowledge. Have you ever noticed how depictions of the Magi tend to have one standing, one bowing and one kneeling? They are leading us into worship, into adoration and the gifts they presented tell us about the mystery revealed to them.

They offered him gold, a sign and symbol of kingship; and frankincense, the sign and symbol of the presence of God. The final gift was the perfumed oil, myrrh, used for his burial and this of course was the sign of his sacrifice that he would offer up his life for the redemption of the whole world. These gifts tell us about God, but they also represent those things that God wants us to give him.

Give to God your gold, that is to say, all that the world values and tells us to strive after, but let nothing and nobody take away your Christian dignity, for you are worth more than all the gold and jewels and earthly treasure in the world. In God’s eyes, everyone is an influencer.

Give to God your frankincense, that is to say, all those things that we make into gods in our life. “You shall have no gods before me”, says the Lord. So, this year, let us offer to God our idols, our mistaken priorities, our worldly but futile ambitions.

Finally, give him myrrh. The root meaning of the word myrrh is ‘bitter’, and it is a symbol of death and the grave. So give to God all that embitters you and all that leads to death, and even give to him your illnesses and sufferings. We are asked to surrender all things to God. No earthly influencer looks for these things, only Jesus said, “come to me all you who labour and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” How easily we can skip over those words, but imagine how they sound to people in Ukraine, or in Gaza right now. These are very serious words. This is all part of Epiphany.

When we have given all of these things to God then we too can kneel before him and truly worship, truly adore.

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB

Why celebrate Mary Mother of God, or Theotokos? It is because Mary is Mother of God, that we celebrate her immaculate conception, her birth, her presentation, the annunciation, the visitation, our Lady of sorrows, her immaculate heart, and the assumption. Mary’s role as Mother of God is the foundation for all other Marian feasts and central to understanding what God’s act of sending his son into the world to be born of her implies for us.

With the annunciation, God sends his son into the world to be born of
Mary. The womb of Mary becomes the ark of God’s presence, the
antechamber of Jesus’ entry into the world. The human family created in the image and likeness of God, is recreated by the union of the divine and human natures in Jesus. Through this union we receive the gift of divine adoption. We are no longer to be simply children of the earth, but children of God. How does this happen? God sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit that cries “Abba, Father.” Through Jesus’ coming into the world, we are no longer slaves but
heirs, members of God’s household. This Spirit of Jesus is expressed perhaps most fully when we pray to God, which we do at this Mass and later in Jesus’ own words: “our Father”, or “Abba”. The Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, and finds expression in worship, prayer, and love.

Mary might be a model for us. Through celebrating God’s choice of Mary to be mother of his Son, we also celebrate Mary’s acceptance, reflection, and cooperation through faith with this choice. We too quickly romanticise what this involved for Mary – statues or images rarely reflect any shock or surprise. Mary’s acceptance of God’s plan upturned her life. Nothing would be the same again for Mary or for humanity.

Mary started life as someone under suspicion. Her betrothed initially plans to separate from her. Later heavily pregnant, she must travel by foot to be registered. At Bethlehem, there is no room at the inn, and the child is delivered in a stable. Shepherds come with astonishing news of the choir of angels and their message. Mary’s faith, her yes to God, is nourished by her continued listening, observing and pondering with an attitude of faith the promise of peace through the calamities that befall her.

Many of us have lives marked by chaos, some of it self-inflicted, some of it caused by others. The response of Mary to the chaos was to continue to say yes to the Prince of Peace. Our favourite Marian prayer, the Hail Mary, recognises this “yes” and the blessing it brings, “blessed are you among women, and the blessed is the fruit of your womb.” The blessing prophesied in the book of Numbers, which culminates in peace, is now made available to the fruit of every womb. Mary, through your intercession as Mother of God, pray for us sinners and invoke, on this the world day of peace, the gift of your Son’s peace for us and for our world.

Fr Lino Moreira OSB

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that by faith Abraham and Sarah were given innumerable descendants (cf. Heb 11:11-12), and that equally by faith, Abraham, when put to the test, offered up his only son Isaac (cf. Heb 11:17). Bound up and placed on the altar of sacrifice, Isaac is clearly a prefiguration of Jesus Christ, and so the sacred author goes on to say that, figuratively speaking, Abraham – who was told not to raise his hand against the boy (cf. Gn 22:12) – received back his only son as someone whom God had raised from the dead (cf. Heb 11:19).

This story of the sacrifice of Isaac, narrated in chapter 22 of the Book of Genesis, is also the backdrop to the gospel we have just heard. St Luke says: ‘When the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord’ (Lk 2:22). In this passage, the key word is ‘to present’, a translation of the Greek paristánai which also means ‘to offer’. What the Evangelist wants to emphasise is that, in the Temple at Jerusalem, Jesus was publicly handed over to God. He is both the Son of the Most High (cf. Lk 1:32) and the lamb spoken of by Abraham on the way to Mount Moriah (cf. Gn 22:12), and in the place where God meets his people, he was completely given over to his heavenly Father.
Hence the prophetic words uttered by Simeon who, along with Anna,
represents the faithful Israel: ‘Now, Lord, you are letting your servant go in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel’ (Lk 2:29-32). In these verses, sung daily by the Church at night prayer, Jesus is identified with the mysterious figure of the Suffering Servant whom the prophet Isaiah calls a light to the nations (Is 42:6; 49:6). Indeed, the child that Simeon took into his arms and blessed is the one chosen from all eternity to bring the light of God to the whole world. But in order to carry out his unique mission and see an offspring, the Servant has to give his life as a sin offering (cf. Is 53:10) – as the prophet Isaiah also points out. And so it is through the cross of his only-begotten Son
Jesus Christ, the Paschal Lamb, that God is going to fulfil the promise he made to Abraham: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations (Gen 17:4).

When Jesus was greeted by Simeon and Anna as the Lord’s Messiah (cf. Lk 2:26), his parents were amazed at what was being said about him (cf. Lk 2:33). Like Abraham in the distant past, Mary and Joseph showed an unshakable faith in God by offering him their only son on the very spot where, according to tradition, the binding of Isaac had taken place. However, as members of the people of God, they too had to listen to the voice of the Lord speaking through the Law and the Prophets to understand God’s actions and how his designs are fulfilled in the course of time. In short, it was through their attention to the word of God that Mary and Joseph were able to discover who their son was, and how their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as
well as their fidelity to the Law of Moses, had turned them into disciples and servants of the Messiah.

So Mary and Joseph teach us the dynamics of a true life of faith. If we
want to follow their son Jesus, the light of the world (cf. Jn 8:12), we need to put all our trust in the Lord and faithfully listen to his word, not as isolated individuals, but as members of the people of God who serve him day and night. Then the Risen Lord himself will explain to us the full meaning of what is written in the Law and the Prophets (cf. Lk 24:27), thereby making manifest the unique role each one of us is meant to play as a member of his family.

Check out the latest edition of the Glenstal Abbey Chronicle with news and views from the monks here: https://shorturl.at/ctuw2

Fr Senan Furlong OSB

Reframing a picture can transform it. Colours are seen in new light and details barely noticed come to the fore. Of course, the picture itself does not change, but the way we perceive it does. Just as a picture can look different when placed in a different frame, so can a life. So often, we frame our lives wrong, viewing people and events in unhelpful and distorted ways. Reframing offers new possibilities. While we cannot always change the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we can change the way we see them. Changing the frame can change the way we feel. Reframing can also change our response.

Christmas is about reframing. It’s about seeing in a new light: God, our families, our community, our world, ourselves. It’s also about changing our response. The readings of today’s Mass offer us new frames, new possibilities of seeing and responding. The first reading from the prophet Isaiah fashions a frame of encouragement and hope of
salvation. The long night of watching has ended. The lookouts on Jerusalem’s watchtowers peer into the distance and see God’s presence coming towards the city. God is returning to a ruined and desolate Jerusalem. It’s not a dream. It’s for real. Now is the time for these ruins to burst into song. But not only Jerusalem. All the ends of the earth, you and I, will see the salvation of our God.

The opening of the Letter to the Hebrews, which is today’s second reading, presents a frame of affirmation and promise of fulfilment. In times past God spoke in fragmentary and various ways through the prophets, but now in this, the final age, he has spoken through his Son. The new-born Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the radiant light of God’s glory. In Jesus, God has reached fully out to us. We can approach him with confidence.

Today’s gospel, the majestic Prologue to St John’s gospel, gives us a frame of wonder, of grace and truth. In the new-born Jesus, God has come to dwell among us. Full of grace and truth, Jesus is God’s ultimate word to us. The human face of Jesus is the revelation of the face of God. He has come to make us—his brothers and sisters—children of God.

We are God’s work of art but maybe we need to change the frame of the picture of our lives. Christmas is an invitation to do just that. Christmas reminds us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. This is what is most true of us, and what is most true of those we live with. The mystery we celebrate today, the birth of the Christ child, invites us to see the world through the eyes of God. To look upon one another and see what the Father sees: the image of his own beloved Son. Christ’s humanity is the much-needed frame of all human lives. In our broken world ‘where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, and by the clash of arms’ we pray that the true Light coming into the world will pierce the darkness in human hearts. For love of us the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. May we welcome the Word into our lives and become children of God, reflecting the radiant light of his glory in our troubled world.

Abbot Brendan Coffey OSB

Christmas is very different in Bethlehem this year. The Christian Churches in the Holy Land have decided that the only celebrations in Bethlehem will be religious. No decorations, lights, trees or festivities of any kind. People are in mourning. This is the reality of Christmas 2023 in the land of Jesus’ birth, a sad miserable reality.

This Christmas we are called to go deeper. Tinsel, fairy lights, turkey and ham will not do it this year, not when people are suffering and dying in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

Today we like our religion to be like fast food—cheap and easy, something we don’t have to work too much for or think too much about. That’s not how a person becomes fit and healthy, neither is it how a person becomes wise and holy.

This year we must become a Bethlehem; the place where the Word was made flesh. Bethlehem means “house of bread,” and bread here means the Word of God. Bread strengthens the heart, the psalmist says and he wasn’t just talking about nutrition.

This Christmas Bethlehem and the Holy Land are drenched in blood; so how on earth can I find God in this catastrophe of human misery? Christmas teaches us that divinity is always where one least expects to find it. God is never predictable. By becoming Bethlehem we are reminded of the dignity of our humanity, even if we are living through a spectacle of barbarity and lack of humanity.

When Christ was born, Herod, the Roman puppet king, sent his soldiers to Bethlehem and they left behind them a scene of devastation. The Gospel of Matthew records this slaughter of the innocents. We usually airbrush out this part of the Christmas story, because it doesn’t sit well with the idyllic scene in the crib, but this is reality my friends.

The prophecy of Jeremiah still speaks to us tonight.

A voice was heard in Ramah,

lamenting and much weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children,

And she would not be comforted

Because they are no more.

Life is not always sweet and nice. Think of what happened on the streets of Dublin on 23^rd November. This is the world we have become. This is why it is so important to celebrate the real Christmas. To remind ourselves that war is an absolute evil. That violence is never the answer.

The famous conversation between Petrarch, a fourteenth century Renaissance man and humanist, and the madman, seems oddly appropriate tonight. The madman saw soldiers on the march and asked “where are they going?” Petrarch answered, “To the war.” The madman continued, “This war will have to end in peace someday, won’t it?” “Certainly”, said Petrarch. “Well then”, said the madman, “why not make peace at once before starting the war?”

Today we live in a world of fear. We fear life; we fear death, and everything in between. The antidote to our fear is the coming of Christ. The first words of Adam to God after the fall were “I was afraid.” The first words at the birth of Jesus are those of the angels to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid.” Despite everything, do not be afraid.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds, the Glory of the Lord enveloped them in light and that light brought them to the manger. If enough people become enveloped in this light, the world will change.