What would you like to search for?

Homilies - Bishop Brendan Leahy

Christmas Day Mass 2024 - Mass in Limerick Prison

Christmas Day

Mass in Limerick Prison

Homily Notes of Bishop Brendan Leahy

Last night in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis opened what is called the “Holy Door”. It marks the beginning of a special year for the Catholic Church called a “Jubilee year” which happens every 25 years. A Holy Year is a special year of calling down God’s help and mercy upon us, and our opening up to his action in our lives. While we cannot physically go through the Holy Door in Rome, we can at least in our heart, open ourselves to whatever gifts God wants to give us at this time.

Pope Francis has given a theme for the year, and it is “Pilgrims of Hope”. He wants us to focus on hope. And Pope Francis is going tomorrow to a prison because he wants the message of hope of this Holy Year to reach prisoners especially. Prisoners are the first group he is visiting in this Holy Year. So I am happy to be here today to share this with you.

But what is hope? Often in the older films, they ended with a “happy ever after” ending. They were a little superficial. We know life isn’t always like that. We know only too well that things don’t always work out “happy ever after” for us, for our family, for people we know.

So, what is hope? Hope is knowing deep down that God is very close to us, God is with us. That’s why Christmas is a celebration of hope. God is with us. And, as St. Paul reminds us, God is always working for our good. Always. God is always working to help us. We are not on our own. We can be confident in God’s promise to be with us and help us. This is hope. Because of this we can say that hope helps us:

  • Be at peace within ourselves. God is with me. God loves me. God says to me: “do not be afraid”.
  • Because of God with us and helping us, we can put up with a lot. Though things might irritate us, make us angry, leave us fed up, we can somehow make the effort to put up with things, to try to be at peace with the others around us, to make up with one another.
  • Because of hope, we can go out to help others – cheer them up when they are a little down, listen to them a little more, help them if they need help.

Someone might say: “that’s fine, but I don’t feel hope; I feel down in myself”. I invite you this Christmas to simply ask God for the gift of hope in your life. Believe that God wants to give you this gift, so ask him for it and keep asking. St. Paul has a great line: hope does not disappoint.

One final thought.  A German friend of mine died recently. I visited him during the summer. He shared with me a prayer he was saying at that time. He knew he was dying. It was a prayer taken from a poem written by a famous German Dietrich Bonhoeffer who ended up imprisoned by the Nazis because he resisted Nazism. Bonhoffer wrote this poem in prison, and it was for his girlfriend. It was written at Christmas 1945. The chorus of the poem is what my friend took as his prayer. I think it’s a great prayer of hope. It says:

So wonderfully surrounded by good powers,
We await with hope, come what may!
God is with us in the evening and in the morning hours,
And most certainly goes with us into each new day.