Christmas 2009
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
20 Dec 2009
We still have a few days before Christmas to do those last minute things - make telephone calls to old friends, buy a few cards for those who weren't on our list, but unexpectedly sent us a card. Perhaps to visit the sick or shut-ins.
Perhaps we still need to get around to making a donation to St. Vincent de Paul to help the battlers as we promised ourselves we would earlier in Advent.
Christmas is a wonderful time and especially when it is blessed with family peace. One sad story I heard was of a teenager in a juvenile reformatory who was bullied, accused of "making it up" by his fellow inmates, when he boasted of a happy Christmas celebration. They reckoned he was lying, because the celebrations they attended were regularly ruined by strife and alcohol. We should be conscious to invite those to join us who might be alone on Christmas Day. People who understand Christianity build and maintain communities, the heart of every structure.
Every celebration goes better when the preparation is sound. If Christmas is to be a religious feast, a family gathering, a time for helping the battlers, we have to prepare on all these fronts.
Part of my religious preparation usually is to attend a number of Christmas celebrations of carols and readings and Handel's Messiah at the Opera House.
The Maroubra parish service with an orchestra, choir and soloists of university students had an overflow congregation in the choir loft. The Director even gives me a sermon draft, most of which I use. Bigger and better than ever.
The St. Mary's Cathedral Choir is the oldest surviving choir in Australia, founded in 1817. Since we have placed the crib in the square in front of the Cathedral where thousands of brochures are distributed the Cathedral has been full each carol service. The programme is less populist than Maroubra's, but beautiful and worthy of one of the best Church choirs in the country.
The music and singing at "the Messiah" was excellent as always, but the large projections on the screen above the stage were something else, ranging from distractions to disaster.
Some were a send-up, with Bob Menzies' face appearing as the Lord spoke, the occasional priest wrapped in a Union Jack while a Catholic Eucharistic procession complete with school cadet band made frequent appearances. Handel cannot be reduced to the 1950s! I wasn't there for Bob Hawke conducting, but that was a harmless gimmick.
Handel's Messiah is like Christmas. If you explicitly exclude God and the Transcendent you are off key.
Happy Christmas to everyone.
