Most Reverend Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv DD STL, Bishop of Parramatta
2025 Homily for Christmas Day
Christmas commits us to a safe, dignified and just world for all
Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18
Dear brothers and sisters,
“The Lord is close to the broken hearted. Today I stand with you, my brothers and sisters”. These are the simple and yet powerful words that Ahmed Al Ahmed conveyed to the mourners at the National Day of Reflection and to all Australians who are still reeling from the worst antisemitic attack on Australian soil. He has emerged as an unlikely hero and a much-needed antidote to division based on race, culture and religion. His message reminds us of our common humanity that ought to be the basis upon which we build a better society and a better world for all.
Today, we gather to celebrate the core belief of our Christian faith. God became one of us. The Christian God is the God of solidarity. The Incarnation is the epitome of divine solidarity. This God does not remain aloof and removed from human experience of pain, anguish, injustice, oppression and every other kind suffering imaginable. “Pitching his tent among us”, the Immanuel, the God-with-us made himself totally vulnerable. St Paul expresses God’s radical solidarity through a journey of total self-giving and self-emptying. “Though he was God, Jesus emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant … and accepting death on a cross”. Christmas is about the God who abandoned his own status to show us the depth of his love. Christmas is the beginning of God’s downward journey into the depths of human existence. No dilemma unlived; no pain untouched; no despair unknown to him. Christmas is about the love that crosses boundaries, that dares to give all away, that commits God to a human journey with us and for us in our most vulnerable state.
Indeed, God’s Word today is at pains to show us that God comes among us not in a parade of power and glory. Rather he chooses to immerse himself fully with our human condition, embracing the trials and tribulations of life. Therefore, celebrating the Incarnation obliges us to imitate God’s radical solidarity by crossing new frontiers of fraternity, creating social bonds, fostering common humanity and beginning with the most dehumanized.
In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah proclaims a time of consolation and restoration for his long suffering people. After years of a painful and harrowing exile, he announces the good news of peace, homecoming and healing of the land and its inhabitants. Isaiah gives us a vision of a God who accompanied the Jewish captives, remodelling them into a new Israel which would be worthy of being his people.
The brokenness and the extreme vulnerability of the exile became the venue for the divine refashioning and repurposing. The dispossessed and humiliated people who remained steadfast came to be known as the faithful remnants or the “Anawim”. It is the strength of their faith, endurance and steadfastness that makes God’s restorative vision possible. It is no wonder that the blessed faithful remnants are seen as precursors who embody the spirit of the Humble Suffering Servant.
In the Gospel, John describes the birth of Jesus not only as a model human being for other humans but as the crowning embodiment of all that exists. The Incarnation is God revealing himself in the flesh of the Christ child that encapsulates the materiality of all creation. Hence, John declares that “all that came to be had life in him” and “He was in the world that had its being through him”. The Incarnation is God’s total Yes and unconditional love for us and for all his creatures.
Christmas opens us to the dawn of this new era of God’s justice, love and compassion in Christ. The default political and economic system that favours the powerful and disadvantages the powerless can no longer hold sway. Christmas ushers in a new social order that levels the playing field and prioritizes the welfare and viability of the weakest links. Christmas beckons us to befriend and accompany the most dehumanised among us to achieve equity, justice, dignity and human flourishing. This is why Pope Leo XIV in his first Apostolic Exhortation sees the love of Christ incarnated in love for the poor, in caring for the sick, opposing slavery, defending women who experience exclusion and violence, making education available to all, accompanying migrants, charitable giving, working for equality and more.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The task of healing, reconciliation and peace-making in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre is difficult and fraught with challenges. But we -the Gospel community- cannot shirk from our civic responsibility and our commitment to embody the God of the broken-hearted. We are inspired by divine solidarity that reaches out to all who suffer injustice, oppression and inequality. Injustice done anywhere is injustice done everywhere. Let us create a safe, dignified and just world for all, since our safety, dignity and justice are all intertwined.
Let us pattern our lives on the self-emptying God who, as the letter to the Hebrews says, sustains the universe. Let us learn to adopt a radical new way of relating and living that facilitates the diversity, harmony and sustainability of all of life. Let us let us commit ourselves to pray and work for justice in all its manifestations so that God’s reign will come in our world.
