Archbishop Miller’s Message for Christmas
With particular concern this Christmas, we turn our gaze to the suffering Holy Land, to Bethlehem. There the Lord came into the world in a stable and was laid in a manger where animals feed on hay, since his parents could find no room in an inn.
Let us, then, look at the scene. Mary and Joseph do not seem to be a very fortunate family. Their Child was born in the midst of great hardship. Yet, they are full of profound joy, because they love each other and they are certain that God is at work in this astonishing birth.
And the shepherds? What did they have to rejoice about? That Newborn Infant wasn’t going to change their condition of poverty and marginalization. It was their simple faith that helped them to recognize that the Child wrapped in swaddling clothes was the fulfilment of God’s promised Saviour for all the people.
God came among us in silence and in the darkness of night. Why like this? Because the Word of God had no need of spotlights or loud human voices. He himself is the Word who gives life its meaning. He is the Light that brightens our path: “The true light, which enlightens everyone” (Jn 1:9). Christ’s birth was the victory of the Light over the darkness of evil and sin.
At Christmas we celebrate that our mighty God truly became “Emmanuel,” God-with-us. No barrier or any distance can separate us from him. God is so powerful that he made himself vulnerable and came to us as a defenseless child, so that we might love him. God is so good that he gave up the splendour of his divinity to be born in a stable, so that we might find him. In that Child Jesus, God became so close to us that we are able to speak to him personally and to enjoy a trusting relationship of deep affection with him.
To give a deeper meaning to Christmas, I urge every family to set up a Nativity scene in their home. It is a simple but effective way of passing on the beauty of the faith to your children. Let them experience amazement and wonder at Jesus’ birth. The manger helps all of us to ponder in our hearts the mystery of God’s love that was revealed in the poverty and simplicity of the Bethlehem stable.
Jesus comes to accompany our daily lives, to share with us in all things: our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears. Like the shepherds on that silent night, let us set out in haste and allow ourselves to be amazed by the Child lying in a manger who is waiting to welcome us.
With my blessing, prayers and warmest best wishes for a joyous celebration of Christmas, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+ J. Michael Miller, CSB
Archbishop of Vancouver
Archbishop Miller’s Message for Advent
A fellow priest with whom I lived and taught for many years always used to remind us at the beginning of Advent that Christmas “comes at the worst time of year.” We have shopping, writing Christmas greetings, putting up decorations, and endless social gatherings. Although it is supposed to be the season of “waiting” and “preparation,” we are mostly spinning our wheels frantically just trying to keep afloat.
We usually slide by the season and make it into a mini-Christmas. Indeed, Christmas carols have already been serenading us for weeks. The time before Christmas that the Church so carefully puts aside as a special liturgical season is absorbed into the feast that follows.
Even if we lament the so-called “over-commercialization” of Christmas, a point fairly taken, we can still look at Advent as a great blessing for us and even for a seemingly indifferent world. Despite its being ignored or absorbed by Christmas, Advent is still a time when forces of kindness and generosity are mobilized, and we should rejoice at that.
The very fact that people feel something different or special at this time of year is a cause for rejoicing. In the words of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional hope within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors to hope.”
But how should we celebrate Advent? We do so as a four-week preparation for the coming of the Lord. First, at his Second Coming, which is emphasized in the early weeks. Originally, in fact, Advent was held to be primarily a period of getting ready to greet the Lord when he comes in glory at the end of the ages. Second, of course, and what is more to the forefront, is Advent as a preparation for our celebration of the Lord’s Birth at Christmas.
In the fifth century, St. Cyril of Alexandria distinguished the two “comings” of Jesus in this way:
In his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger. In his second coming he is clothed with light as with a garment. In his first coming he bore the cross, despising its shame; he will come a second time in glory accompanied by the hosts of angels. It is not enough for us, then, to be content with his first coming; we must wait in hope of his Second Coming.
Dear friends: May this Advent draw you ever closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, anticipating with hope his coming at the close of the ages, and celebrating with joy the staggering and wondrous mystery that the Word was made flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
+ J. Michael Miller, CSB
Archbishop of Vancouver