See the Star

Editorial printed on 23 December 2000

ALL the money-making and merry-making in Limerick this hectic festive weekend tend to distract attention from what all the fuss is supposed to be about. "Christ our Saviour is born!" But on Sunday night and on Monday morning that central fact of the great feast will find expression in the cribs of churches chapels and cathedrals.

And as the choristers urge "Oh come let us adore him," countless thousands will. Moreover the religious fervour is not confined to one denomination or another. Christmas might be second to Easter in its order of importance on the calendar but it is first in its power to unite.

Subconsciously or otherwise, all Christians of all sects and of none are in effect one in their celebration of the great occasion. That is self-evidently good but scarcely cause for mutual congratulations. For if Christians truly are followers of Christ they will pause to appreciate the true significance of the season that's in it-and act accordingly.

Just think . . .

A baby of dubious parentage is born in poverty. The authorities are out to get him. He and his family are destined to become refugees.

He will live most of his life in obscurity. Then, in a heart-breaking miscarriage of justice, he will be condemned to death. And as he dies in agony even his own will disown him.

Yet he will change the world. For he is love. Even from birth there are signs for those with the eyes to see: "We have seen his star in the East." Kings and shepherds, natives and foreigners, the good, the bad and the ugly-he was and is open to them all.

Isn't there a lesson there somewhere for a community coming to terms with exclusion in general and with immigration and asylum in particular? If Christmas is to mean anything to Christians it must mean the inclusion of all newcomers, both through pressure for more enlightened public policies and through personal acts of friendship towards individual people from overseas, whether Hindu, Muslim or plain pagan. And Christian leaders, most notably the clergy, must lead the way by practical example, such as offering property as accommodation.

Or is the ostensibly religious experience of Christmas to become less Bethlehem, more Disneyland?

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