A Christmas message from Cardinal Robert W. McElroy
Each year, we celebrate at Christmas the history of salvation that unites the whole of human history with the grace, and the majesty, and the love of our God.
As we are reminded of the prophets whom God sent into the world to announce the message of God’s goodness and mercy toward us, we are caught up in the reality that the Jewish people were singularly an instrument of God’s action, culminating in the birth of Jesus Christ into homelessness in a barren stable in Bethlehem.
Amidst a world that cries out on so many levels to dramatize those elements of God’s salvation of justice, peace and light which still remain far off in our human societies, we can become preoccupied with all that remains undone in the building of God’s Kingdom.
But the transforming grace which entered the world with overwhelming power in the birth of our Lord and Savior creates miracles all around us every day in the profound efforts by men and women of faith to bring the light and the spirit of the Gospel into our family life, our friendships and our world as a whole.
Yes, the fullness of the Kingdom of God lies far off in the distance. But the penetrating light of Jesus Christ pierces through every form of human darkness to renew our hope, and faith, and our commitment to ennobling the world into which we have been born.
So, take heart and find joy in these days of Advent and Christmas. For they reveal to us in a unique way that the grace of our God can never be stopped.
