Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 9:1-7; Psalm 95; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14
25 December 2025
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I wish you a happy and blessed Christmas.
Having just become a great uncle for the 33rd time, I had the great joy of baptising two new grandnieces on Saturday. Then on Monday I celebrated the requiem mass for the last remaining member of the older generation of my family.
Perhaps because of all we have been hearing and reflecting about the menorah at the tragic Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, I was fascinated by our own Christian description of the Jesus as the light – the light of our lives, and the light of the world.
At the baptism ceremony, I presented the parents and godparents with lighted candles saying:
‘Parents and godparents,
this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly.
These children of yours have been enlightened by Christ.
They are to walk always as children of the light.
May they keep the flame of faith alive in their hearts.
When the Lord comes, may each of them go out to meet him
with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.’
At the funeral, one of my sisters lit the paschal candle beside the coffin and I said:
‘In baptism Mary Rose received the light of Christ. That light has guided her throughout her life. May she now enjoy the risen life with her risen Lord.’
Tonight we celebrate the birth of the one who is our light – from birth unto death. In tonight’s first reading from Isaiah, we hear: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.’
Some of us have had a blessed and happy year; others of us have had a wretched year marked by loss and fear; most of us, dare I say, have had a mixed year of blessings and joy, curses and anxieties. All of us, even in moments and places of darkness, have been invited to walk in the light of Christ.
We are like the shepherds on that first Christmas night. Going about our daily affairs, simply minding our own business, we are pulled up short, hearing the surprising message: ‘Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people.’ Contemplating the ‘baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger’, we join the angels in proclaiming ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’ We mightn’t quite use that language around the Christmas tree or at the Christmas table, but it is the joyful hope that we carry in our hearts this day – a hope we share here at the altar, a hope we share with all those around our tree and at our table, a hope we hold for all people, even those who have no tree or table to share this day.
Let’s be ambassadors for peace, each in our own small way, each in our own familiar orbit. Let’s give glory to God in thanks for the blessings of life, despite the woes, losses and anxieties.
May the light of Christ, the Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince of Peace exercise dominion over our world ‘in a peace that has no end’ – a dominion established and made secure in justice and integrity.
May the joy and bounty of your Christmas tree and Christmas table produce ripples of peace and hope in the most unexpected places in the year to come.
May the fruits of our Christmas eucharist be more than enough for us to share. May we take the light of the newborn Christ child to shine in the darkest recesses of our world.
Happy Christmas.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ is serving as part of a Jesuit team of priests working within a new configuration of the Toowong, St Lucia and Indooroopilly parishes in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Frank Brennan SJ is Adjunct Professor of the Thomas More Law School at ACU and is a former CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA). Fr Frank’s latest books include Pope Francis: the Disruptive Pilgrim’s Guide (ATF Theology, 2025), and Gerard Brennan’s Articles and Speeches: Maintaining the Law’s Skeleton of Principle (2 volumes) (Connor Court, 2025).
