It is the season for Nativity plays.  They come in all shapes and sizes, some of them very slick and professional (some of them even produced by professionals brought in to reduce the chaos).   Others stagger their way to an over-delayed conclusion borne on the wings of prayer and hope, so lengthy that they make my sermons seem like precious jewels of instantaneous wisdom.

Probably the best description of a chaotic Nativity play is in the novel Rubyfruit Jungle, which, however, I cannot recommend to you in its entirety as the language used is not always appropriate to what we would expect in Shirley.   In this disaster-strewn production, one of the shepherds is so overcome by fear on taking to the stage that he wets himself while making his offering, thereby causing the child acting St. Joseph to make the immortal impromptu reply:  “You can’t pee in front of the little Lord Jesus, go back to the hills”.

In recent years, alas, a shadow has passed across the happy-go-lucky world of the Nativity play: some councils have banned parental videos of school productions on the grounds that the results may end up being used for corrupt purposes on the Internet.  And in South Shields one parent recently bit the finger off another during a fight in front of the assembled company before the play began.   “And on earth peace to people of good will”?

Of course one can have a super-professional Nativity play, but somehow it doesn’t seem quite right.  That is more what we would associate with the Passion play, from Oberammergau downwards.   In the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus we are dealing with such mind-boggling matters that we are straining to keep our hold on the story at all.  It is a story that is really beyond our range.  No wonder we tread carefully when we enact it.

But the Nativity play is different.  Chaos and confusion seems to be a built-in part of the story.  ‘Making do’ and ‘muddling through’ are, after all, what the Holy Family had to do.  There was no room for a polished ‘finished product’ in the makeshift accommodation of the manger or the cave.

This is why the story appeals so much to adults, largely irrespective of the fact that it is enacted by children.  It is a symbol of our chaotic adult lives, full of God-given promise, but often blighted by failures, misunderstandings, fruitless expenditure of effort, and grief.

It is only right that Christmas is close to New Year and new resolutions.  As we contemplate the ‘child amid the mess’, so we are reminded of our own God-given lives, so full of outward confusion, yet so rich in God-given worth.  A worth no-one can take away from us.

Dear Brothers and sisters,

The glory of the Lord has shone upon us, and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.
Through the rhythms of the times and seasons, he lets us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall this year’s culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord, his Last Supper, his Crucifixion, his Burial and his Rising, celebrated between the evening of the ninth of April and the evening of the twelfth of April.

Each Easter, as on each Sunday, the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death. From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the twenty-fifth of February.
The Ascension of the Lord, forty days after Easter, falls on the twenty-first of May (the obligation attached to this day is transferred to the Sunday following).
Pentecost, the joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the thirty-first of May.
And this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the twenty-ninth of November.
Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of Christ in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints (the Solemnity of St. Boniface is on the fifth of June, the Solemnity of the Dedication of our Church the seventeenth of June.), and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history, be endless praise, for ever and ever, Amen.

The Proclamation of the Date of Easter on Epiphany dates from a time when calendars were not readily available. It was necessary to make known the date of Easter in advance, since many celebrations of the liturgical year depend on its date. The number of Sundays that follow Epiphany, the date of Ash Wednesday, and the number of Sundays that follow Pentecost are all computed in relation to Easter.

In the Catholic Church, the date of Easter moves each year because it is affected by the lunar and solar cycles. The Council of Nicaea (325 AD) determined that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or first day of spring (in the northern hemisphere). (The Orthodox Churches use a different calendar system, and so their date for Easter is different. You can read about the difference in Easter calendaring here.)

Although calendars now give the date of Easter and the other feasts in the liturgical year in advance, the Epiphany proclamation still has value. It is a reminder of th centrality of the resurrection of the Lord in the liturgical year and the importance of the great mysteries of faith which are celebrated each year.

In the years when I was a parish priest, I was always delighted when the Bishop offered a Pastoral Letter for this particular celebration coming, as it does, so quickly on the heels of CHristmas. It wasn’t just that we felt “talked out” after all the Christmas festivities, it was also that I, at least, felt that preaching about the Holy Family – that almost impossibly “holy” family – was a very difficult task.

I can’t pretend that today I can say anything new but I do want to offer you a few toughts, as well as giving you my greetings for today and for the whole Christmas season.

First of all, our celebration today gives us “family” at its best and we particuarly need that at this time when, politically and often socially, family life is being undermined and diminished.

In this celebration, we are offered a supreme example of trust, obedience and generous love. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have been very blessed in a very happy and fulfilled family life, buit I am acutely aware that this is not everyone’s experience and I both acknowledge and sympathise with the pain that many, who are in broken families, suffer and endure.

The ideals of Christian family life set the highest standards. They challenge us in their fulfilment and they challenge us in the giving of example and encouragement to others. But these ideals are crucial for the well-being of the community as a whole. They are Christian ideals and we, who are Christians, have a great responsibility to demonstrate convincingly that they are not beyond our reach. Remember always that example is more powerful than exhortation. Reach out for these values yourselves and encourage others to do so, praying and remembering all the time that “nothing is impossible for God”.

But it’s not just family life that’s under threat in today’s world – we live today in many ways what Pope John Paul described as a culture of death. Life itself has become cheap and, as a society, we have become careless and destructive of life, whether that life is found at its very beginnings, in the womb and in the unborn child, or in the old and frail as they approach natural death. To see such persons – for that is what they trule are – as somehow disposable or a nuisance or of no consequence, is to show a supreme disregard for the value and dignity of all who, like ourselves, are children of a loving God.

As Catholics, we pride ourselves on being “pro-life” and that is true for the diocese, for all of you who form our diocesan family and for myself. We are committed to defending life at all its stages. This commitment is the seamless garment for Christian living, and it means that all, but especially those who suffer from defencelessness and vulnerability of any kind, proverty, disease and conflict, have a right to a special place in our hearts and in the heart of the Church.

This rich vision of life will not necessarily enear us to the culture in which we live but this is where we have to stand if we are to be faithful to the truth that all hum beings, our brothers and sisters, are created in God’s own image and likeness.

This celebration of the feast of the Holy Family gives us the chance, not only to catch our breath after the Christmas festivities, but also to contemplate something of the reality of the circumstances and family that surrounded the Word made flesh, the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, Son of God, who has lived among us.

In the contemplation and prayer today, we rejoice in the gift of life in all its richness and dignity. Our prayer is also that we treasure and sustain, as best we can, the precious gify of family in which that life is nurtured and in which it flourishes.

I send you all my greetingsd at this time and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless us all with his love and his grace as we enter into the New Year of 2009 which will be upon us in a few days.

May God bless you all,

+Crispian