Friday, 20 December 2024 07:56

This Christmas, let us be witnesses to the Light of Christ

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD profile pic 250Dear Friends,

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.

Christmas Manger scene with figurines including Jesus, Mary, Joseph, sheep and wise men. Focus on baby!In the Gospel of St John, we are told that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). It is a mind-blowing reality. That God became human and lived here on earth among us in order to restore broken humanity to full relationship with God.

In the Prologue to St John’s Gospel we also hear about Christ in terms of Light, “and light shines in the darkness, and darkness could not overpower it” (Jn 1:5).

Reading on we learn that: “The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone.” And we also hear John the Baptist described as being a witness to that light.

Friends, this Christmas, as we gaze at the nativity scene on Christmas Eve, let’s give thanks for the coming of the Light of Christ into the world. This Christmas, as with every Christmas, the Christ-child comes again into a wounded world – a world troubled by conflict, poverty, unfair distribution of resources, ecological threat and much more.

But St John reminds us that Jesus brings Light into those areas of darkness. And furthermore, we are witnesses to that Light. As baptised Christians we have the Light of Christ in us, and we become witness to that Light and reflections of it.

We witness to the Light when we show love to our family, our friends, our colleagues, to strangers we meet, to those who are in need, to the sick and to the lonely.

As Divine Word Missionaries in the Australia Province we are committed to bearing witness to the Light of Christ in a range of settings, from Indigenous communities to multicultural parishes and chaplaincies, to caring for those whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Thailand or who are living with conflict in Myanmar. Just as Jesus came to live among us in the poorest of circumstances, so too do we seek to accompany all people, especially the marginalised and forgotten.

This Christmas, let us not only welcome the Light that shines forth in the darkness, but resolve in the coming year to step further into our identity as Witnesses to the Light by sharing the love of Christ we have received.

I thank all our friends and partners in mission for your support in 2024 and I wish you and your families a happy and blessed Christmas.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD,

Provincial.