This is the edited text of the homily for the morning Mass of the Nativity of the Lord at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 25 December 2025.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We all know the biblical story of creation (Gen chs 1 & 2), in which God made this magnificent universe for us, and made us in His own image, free, intelligent and loving, so we might flourish according to His plan. The Book of Genesis gives an account of God creating the elements: light, earth and seas; sun and moon, day and night, months and years; plants and animals, wild and tame. And in that garden paradise, He placed man and woman as helpmates, to unite and be fruitful, to build a community, populate the world and enjoy its fruits.
It’s an idyllic scene. Yet something is awry about the natural world we have inherited. The environment, our bodies, our fellows do not cooperate with us as they should. We hurt others and are hurt ourselves. We struggle to know what to do and then do it (cf. Rom 7:19).
The Book of Genesis puts this disorder down to sin. We let God down, each other down, ourselves down in various ways. The first sin in the Garden led to the blame game between Adam and Eve and then to accusing their Creator. Next their boys Abel and Cain, rivals for glory, fight to the death. As the population grows, so do the antagonisms, and soon people are engaging in “wickedness of every sort”. The poor and powerless, widow and orphan, stranger in the land, all are victimised. We saw it most recently in the unspeakable evil at Bondi Beach. It can leave us wondering why God bothered: why create a world in which human persons are free to do great good—but also great evil? Is God’s gamble worth it?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… Through him all things were made… [with] light and life… grace and truth.” (Jn 1:1-18)
At that the new beginning of Christmas “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us so that we have seen his glory.” Creation is being rebooted, as it were.
First, we notice that all of creation is there at the first Christmas as it was at the start of the world. The heavens with a comet to follow and angel choir to hear. The earth with fields and flocks, animals and plants, ox and ass. A man and woman as in Eden. All of human life is here: family life, as a Baby comes into the world; commerce and hospitality in an innkeeper; agriculture and industry represented by the shepherds. There’s politics, too, with mentions of Caesar, the governor, three good kings and one bad. There’s tension in the air, as occupying forces maintain an uneasy peace, officials conduct a census for the purposes of taxation and conscription, and soldiers are ordered to kill the baby boys. Christmas reprises all the beauty of Creation – and the dark side also.
Secondly, our Gospel tells us that darkness has long contended with the light in our world and sought to overwhelm it. The gloom that has surrounded us since December 14, as all-too-often in history, is there in our texts today. Not everything is as idyllic as Eden. Yet John tells us that Jesus enters the world as “a light shining in the darkness that could not be overcome”, “the true light for everyone”, “the radiance of God’s only Son” (Jn 1:1-18).
Light and dark there is, violence and peace also. Isaiah prophesies in a tense situation: a community in ruins, watchmen looking out for enemies, people crying out for comfort and peace (Isa 52:7-10) – almost as if he’d seen video of the Bondi massacre. But again there is hope: promises of salvation and peace, good tidings of comfort and joy. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given… and his name shall be called… the Prince-of-Peace.” (Isa 9:2-7) Christ is celebrated in the angelic Gloria as “peace on earth” (Lk 2:14). The light so long tarnished, the peace so often defiled, are being restored this day. All the cosmos is present at the birth because it all needs what this birth brings. Our re-creation has begun.
Thirdly, a man and a woman are the principal protagonists both of the Genesis story and the Christmas story. But where Adam and Eve resisted God’s plan in pursuit of their own will, Joseph and Mary respond faithfully and fully. Where the first couple make a family that would turn on each other, the Son of the second couple is One to draw all people together. And humanity cooperates in God’s great regeneration project. Three kings out of four, at least, honour the Christmas Lord. Shepherds also, and a drummer boy, if our carol is to be believed. Even John the Baptist is a faithful witness at the first Christmas party.
Fourth, the God of Genesis is a God of new beginnings. In the beginning He created all that is out of nothing but sheer imagination and goodness. In the new beginning that is Christmas, He comes as grace and truth made flesh to renew all things (Jn 1:1-18; Rev 21:5). The Word has power to create and recreate, transform and transfigure all matter, all flesh, all spirit, and raise up the mortal to immortality. He comes with light and peace this day, reinvesting in us and all creation, as an infant swaddled in poverty and powerlessness, set to overcome the violence and gloom.
In a beautiful tribute to the Blessed Virgin, the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:
This air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race.
“God’s infinity dwindled to infancy”: it blows the mind to think of such a thing. How can the infinite One become finite without losing His infinity? How can the unchanging One change without ceasing to be God? How can the Creative Word be reduced to a baby’s cries? How can omnipotence become helpless, impassibility vulnerable, immortality mortal? No wonder the learned discounted the Christian thing as pure folly. The paradox challenges the logical mind and proud heart.
But a startled virgin and her dreamy husband took it seriously. So did angelic choristers, nobody farmworkers and astrologer kings. A temple priest and prophetess recognised it too. They were the first congregation of Jews, pagans and new Christians, celebrating what humanity has marked ever since with Christmas and great jubilees. Today we join that first congregation at the manger, along with all who recognise that God’s infinity dwindled to infancy is not God diminished but God revealed. God is Love always ready to communicate itself. God is Power willing to be weak to make us strong. God is transcendence able to enter energy and matter, time and life to be with us. All of this “for us and for our salvation.” Christmas declares that despite present gloom, the haters will not win, love conquers all, creation is being remade before our very eyes, through Him, with Him, and in Him, the Babe of Bethlehem.
