This year we are celebrating Christmas during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. This Holy Year was inaugurated by Pope Francis a few weeks ago, when he opened the Holy Door in St Peter’s in Rome. We launched the Jubilee a week later in our own diocese by opening a Holy Door in our Cathedral in Cavan.

The Holy Door will be open every day until the Jubilee ends on the Feast of Christ the King in November. The open door is an invitation to come into the Church and be touched by the love, mercy and forgiveness of God. It’s an invitation especially for those who have been long away from the Church to come back. It’s an opportunity for a fresh start.

The open door is also challenge to all of us in the Church to go out and share God’s love and mercy with others. Christmas is a time when we do that a lot. We give gifts to our friends and families. The example of Jesus asks us to go beyond families and friends, to love the stranger and even our enemies.

This year, as usual, I got a few Christmas cards showing the flight into Egypt – the traditional picture of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the donkey. But on one of the cards this year, alongside the traditional picture, there was a very modern one, a whole family of present-day refugees with their children and all their belongings on a donkey. They were fleeing the war in Syria. It’s a reminder that the refugees we see on our TV screens are not just migrants. They are real people, made in the image of God. God depends on us and people like us to show his mercy to them. That picture prods my conscience. What have I done in practical terms to show God’s mercy to those who are fleeing persecution, war, hunger and poverty?

For us, Christmas is a time of plenty, sometimes of excess and even extravagance. This Christmas, let us remember in a special way refugees, migrants and all who are fleeing situations of conflict. Closer to home, we remember all who are without food and shelter, and those recently affected by the severe flooding in some parts of the country. We have received mercy from God. We ask for the grace to manifest God’s mercy in our world by our generosity to all those who are in need.

Warmest Christmas greetings to you wherever you are at Christmas, but especially if you are far from home, if you are in hospital, or if you are working to provide essential services while the rest of us celebrate.
I wish you all a happy and a peaceful Christmas.