As 2024 comes to an end, I would like to thank you all for your loving and generous service to the poor through SSVP this year. No year is without challenges and the poor remain part of our community, needing our help and our love. Thank you for the sacrifices you make to share your resources, your time and God’s love with the poorest of the poor.
At this Christmastime, we reflect on a few important messages from the Christmas story. Firstly, Mary’s response to God in the Magnificat. The song she sings puts God’s wondrous deeds in the past tense – as if the hungry have already been fed and the lowly already lifted up. Her faith is in things not seen and she sings of a thorough ‘cleaning’ that shakes the foundation of all that is familiar and comfortable. She sings of a new creation, a new way of commitment. Her ‘yes to God’ sings of revelation, freedom and transformation.
Secondly, when Jesus was born, he was greeted by many different and diverse people and groups: angels, shepherds, wise men, Simeon, Anna. Jesus was born into community and so are we. Community acts as a midwife as it prepares for, receives and nurtures the child. Anna was in the temple, the heart of the life and worship of the Hebrew community. She was open and receptive to God and able to perceive the significance of Jesus’ arrival in the temple. Not only does she receive Jesus, but she takes the good news of his arrival out to the community and reminds us of the need for us to do the same.
In the midst of the noise and clamour of the preparation for festivities, we need to pause and consider the messages God sends us through the Christmas narrative, so that we can experience God coming among us, requiring us to say ‘yes’ to Him and to taking the good news into our communities.
My prayer for each one of you is that God’s presence will bring you and your loved ones peace and joy as you celebrate this wonderful time of the year.
Yours in Christ,
VINCENT WILLIAMS
National President