Evil, sin, suffering and death “are a persistent daily reality, often in their most gruesome and demoralising forms,” in parts of the world today, “not least in the places where Jesus was born,” Ireland’s two main church leaders have said.
“What we call, sometimes rather lamely, ‘the Christmas story’ brings another of the great unavoidable facts of existence, to set alongside the irrefutable fact of the darkness of evil. The fact of the bright mystery and love of God,” said Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin and Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop John McDowell in a joint message.
The bible “doesn’t pretend that the mystery of evil and the mystery of God are easy to understand or come to terms with,” they said.
“We are called to ensure that the light of Bethlehem continues to stream out across the world, from Gaza to Ukraine, from Sudan to Syria, and on into our own homes, communities and workplaces across the island of Ireland. Where hatred, war and violence abound, the world falls deeper and deeper into darkness. Where the light of Christ is shared, love and peace shall be found,” they said.
In his Christmas message, Presbyterian Moderator Rt Reverend Dr Richard Murray lamented that Bethlehem “the town that saw the arrival of the ‘Light of the world’ is still in darkness, in a region that still doesn’t know peace”.
He recalled a recent visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland where “the ugliness of human sin was on full display as I contemplated the deep and dark hatred that drove so many to war, torture and mass murder. It was an awful and hopeless place.”
In contrast, “the message of Christmas is about hope”, he said. “In an uncertain world, where so many are at war with each other, and so many are at war with God, the gracious invitation of God is to take refuge in Jesus Christ,” he said.
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson spoke of Bethlehem today as “a Palestinian village subjected to intense intimidation, social starvation and personal powerlessness”.
At the end of 2024 “we continue to look to Christmas for hope, searching with a mounting sense of fear and dread on behalf of others as of ourselves,” he said.
In Ireland “we are conscious that poverty and homelessness take many forms” and, where immigration was concerned, that “in 2024 we have reacted physically and shamefully”.
Abroad, “warfare is the new normal. Ukraine and Israel–Palestine fall over the precipice of our consciousness and therefore of our conscience all too readily.”
Jesus, “the Child of joy who is born at Christmas continues to be born in the rubble of privilege and in the rubble of irrelevance,” he said.
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