- 25
- Dec
- 2024

Christmas Mass 2024, St. John’s Cathedral, Limerick
Homily Notes of Bishop Leahy
In the weeks before Christmas, visiting the parishes of this pastoral unit, I met school children. It was wonderful as always to hear them sing the Christmas songs. The children were given a “happy birthday Jesus” card and invited to colour it in, write their prayer intentions, and then drop the card into the crib in their local church. A simple initiative, that warms the heart and brings as smile to our face. But on this Christmas Eve/Day we could all ask ourselves– if we were to fill in such a birthday card to Jesus, what would we put on it, what would we want to say? I’m sure there are many things we would like to write but I would like to suggest three “thank you-s” that we could write on the card.
A first “Thank you” would be for coming close to us. Yes, the babe in swaddling clothes the Gospel tells us is telling us something really important: the All-powerful God is not far away in the clouds, he has come very close, he has become humanised in our world. What we see in the crib is that our God has made himself small for us, vulnerable, poor, not judging or threatening. The God in the form of the child Jesus is saying: “I love you; I forgive you, I am with you always; do not be afraid, you are not on your own”. Yes, our God, as Pope Francis keeps reminding us, is the God of closeness, compassion and tenderness. For this we can be thankful.
A second “thank you” would be for teaching us how to be close to others. Remember God could have said about humanity – they are to blame, they have caused the mess, I’ll wait for them to take the first step. But instead, in his humility, he reached out, he took the first step, he listened to our cry, he took on board our suffering, he forgave, he brought peace. In all of this he is teaching us how to be close to people – to take the first step, to listen, to take on board their suffering.
When Jesus would grow up, in his life and ministry, he would continue to teach us how to be close to others. He would tell the parable of the Good Samaritan, a man, not even one of the chosen people, who heard and listened to the cry of a stranger assaulted and left for dead on the roadside, the Samaritan who took the first step, took the stranger’s suffering on board, reached out and took concrete steps to help a wounded stranger. Throughout the centuries and also here in Limerick, Many, many people have been inspired by this teaching. There have been so many wonderful big and small initiatives where people have listened to the needs of others, reached out and helped. For all of this let us also be grateful this evening. I’m thinking of the many involved in initiatives such as meals on wheels, volunteers visiting nursing homes, responding to the Christmas appeals, and so many small and large daily gestures of solidarity. “This is how all will know you for my disciples”, Jesus said, “if have love for one another”, if you draw close to one another. So, a thank you on the Christmas card to Jesus for teaching us how to draw close to others.
I liked what the late Cardinal Martini wrote some years ago. He pointed out that when we say we need to draw close and become neighbours to one another, this is never automatic. Just being beside somebody doesn’t mean we have become neighbours to each other. As Card. Martini, put it, for Christians, “a neighbour is not simply someone with whom I already have a relationship because we are related or from the same race or involved in the same business or because the psychological chemistry between us is good. No. “I become a neighbour in that moment when, in front of another person, whoever they might be, even in front of a stranger or an enemy, I decide to take a step that brings me closer, that brings me nearer.” It’s always a question of my heart, taking at least a first step to reach out, perhaps forgiving those nearest to me, which is never easy.
The third “thank you” I propose for the card is thank you for not only having come close and teaching us how to become to close to one another but also having made us messengers of hope. From the crib, Jesus is sending us out to have hearts open like never before to building authentic, true relationships so that we can be bearers of peace and hope for everyone. As the Gospel today puts it, Good News to be shared. Pope Francis this evening in Rome launched the Jubilee Year, that is the Holy Year that happens every 25 years in the Catholic Church. The theme he has chosen for this year is “pilgrims of hope”. It is a year when we are called in a particular way to be people of hope. And that can start with small steps of encouraging others around us, cheering them up, believing and praying even when all seems dark. Recently, a young person I know said that to be draw close to someone is to lift up their hearts. God wants us to lift up hearts in hope.
The world needs hope so when we think of awful conflicts in our world. The people in Gaza, for instance, live in a crucible of suffering that is sheer cruelty – 45,000 dead, 17,000 of them children. But there are many other points of the world where there are conflicts – Mayanmar, Haiti, Ethiopia, Cameroon, the list goes on. And in our own land, we need to do our part to promote horizons of hope when faced with many social challenges, including domestic abuse and assaults that we witness lately.
Yes, it's so important today to keep hope alive. That is the vocation to which Jesus calls each one of us from the crib. To keep on hoping by believing all things, bearing all things, enduring all things. We are sent out as messengers of hope. It is a noble vocation for each of us.
So, these are the three “thank-yous” I propose for our Christmas card to Jesus – thank you for showing me/us God’s closeness, thanks for teaching us how to be close to one another, and thanks for making us messengers of hope.