MSC Magazine | Issue 4 | Summer 2020

Page 2| Missionaries of the Sacred Heart C hristmas Summer 2020/21 At last Christmas is here... and then we’ll begin again - a New Year - 2021! But what a year? What – a – year! What a year it has been. What has it been for you, for us, and for God’s mission? Maybe now as we come to the end of one of the worst years in histo- ry – what has this year meant to us, to me – what then has the Christmas message have for us in a Covid19 period? A couple of years ago I was told of a story of a woman who worked in an office in North Sydney, and of how she got really excited about the Christmas period. She would come into the office on the last weekend of November and decorate it all, beginning with a Christmas tree, tinsel on all the walls, presents under the tree, Christmas lollies placed strategically around the office and even down to a Nativity scene. It had the lot. Another woman in the office asked her on the Monday morning, why she got so excited about the lead up to Christmas. Her reply was: “Well, this is the best part of Christmas for me… [and with a lump in her throat] because Christmas day is the loneliest day of the year.” Christmas time for many is a really hard time of year. For some it brings up the loss of family members; for others it opens old wounds and scars from past events. For some people Christmas can be a vio- lent time or an extremely lonely time. Today, as I write this introduction to our magazine, I ask myself what will it be like this year, with so many working from home due to Covid19, isolated and lonely? So, what does Christmas really mean? What does it mean when we say: Today is born a saviour, Christ the Lord? How did Christmas go from what it was originally – a story of alienation, political tyranny, homeless- ness, working-class people, pagans, and angels – to Santa Claus, wonderful Christmas trees, senti- mental Christmas songs, and beautiful nativity scenes… all of which I like. Over the four weeks of Advent we light the Advent Candles – all of which, in most places, are on stands, up high for all to see… and then, come Christmas Eve, we place the child Jesus at floor level. It is a movement of coming down. Entering in at the bottom. But this not the world we live in today. We live in a world which is about climbing up, to be on top. Like the Trumps, the Murdocks, Rine- harts, Palmers, corporate leaders, as well as many of our political leaders, left and right, and I could go on and on, of this world… and, maybe, when in my 20’s, I thought this is what life is really all about… climbing to the top. But on Christmas night, here is our God doing the opposite, our God comes down the ladder. Yes, on the one hand we praise and sing “Glory to God in the highest”; he is our God - hero who has come to save us. But on the other, here is our God, the God-hero, who is an infant, a baby, small, helpless, fragile, and is placed into the hands of others who will take care of him. Here, Jesus is born in a stable, among the animals; let us picture this scene: Here is the new born child, Jesus, here he is among the animals, the straw, the smell, the manure and a lot of other things… think about this… imagine it if you can… smell it… breathe it in… here is our God, born into a smelly, stinking place – FROM THE PROVINCIAL’ S DESK