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January 2, 2021Abu Dhabi.
Here is the full text of the homily delivered by Bishop Paul Hinder during midnight mass of New Year 2021 at St. Joseph's Cathedral Abu Dhabi.
1. Yesterday many of us may have looked back to the year 2020 with mixed feelings. On one hand, there are all the trials we have gone through because of Covid-19. We remembered the people who passed away. We thought about those who could not even accompany their beloved ones on the last stretch to eternal life. We may have remembered the victims of violence throughout the world and especially in Yemen that belongs to our Vicariate and where millions of people suffer. We may have kept in mind all the displaced people and refugees who are longing for a secure place in this world, and many other people in distress. On the other hand, the year 2020 released a lot of solidarity amidst the misery. I think about people who did everything in order to reduce the suffering of others even at the risk of their own health and life. Overall, we have reasons to look back in gratitude despite all the pain we have gone through. We are grateful for all that we got from God and for all the love and commitment we enjoyed by others: in the family, in this parish, in this country. Now, we look forward with hope and confidence. I wish to call to your mind the prayer that is spoken every year while blessing the Easter candle: “Christ yesterday and today/ the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega; all time belongs to him, and all the ages; to him be glory and power, through every age for ever. Amen.” Let us never forget this basic truth when we have to pass through difficult moments.
2. In the first reading we heard the blessing of Aaron: “May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you! May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace!” The 1st January is for more than 50 years declared as the World Day of Peace. This year, Pope Francis has chosen as a topic “A culture of care as path to peace”. He stresses what in the blessing of Aaron is expressed. God may take care of us in blessing and keeping us, in letting us show his countenance and giving peace. Whoever believes truly in God has to become at his turn a caretaker for others. Since the time of Cain and Abel, God never stopped to ask: “Where is your brother, where is your sister?” Pope Francis reminds us with provoking insistence, that we are called to take care of what God has given into our responsibility as human beings. God has built the house in which we live. He wants us not to spoil it but to make it habitable for all.
3. This leads us to the mystery we are celebrating today, to Mary, the Mother of God. She took care of Jesus. In the long Creed, we profess: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” In this world we shall never fully understand, how God could become a human being as a Jew named Jesus, in a place of Palestine, at the periphery of the Roman Empire. However, Saint Paul is very clear about it in today’s second reading: “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons.” Being children of God obliges us to live and behave accordingly and that means also to take care of one another.
I wish to quote two paragraphs of the Pope’s message for World Peace Day:
“The culture of care thus calls for a common, supportive and inclusive commitment to protecting and promoting the dignity and good of all, a willingness to show care and compassion, to work for reconciliation and healing, and to advance mutual respect and acceptance. As such, it represents a privileged path to peace. “In many parts of the world, there is a need for paths of peace to heal open wounds. There is also a need for peacemakers, men and women prepared to work boldly and creatively to initiate processes of healing and renewed encounter”.
At a time like this, when the barque of humanity, tossed by the storm of the current crisis, struggles to advance towards a calmer and more serene horizon, the “rudder” of human dignity and the “compass” of fundamental social principles can enable us together to steer a sure course. As Christians, we should always look to Our Lady, Star of the Sea and Mother of Hope. May we work together to advance towards a new horizon of love and peace, of fraternity and solidarity, of mutual support and acceptance. May we never yield to the temptation to disregard others, especially those in greatest need, and to look the other way; instead, may we strive daily, in concrete and practical ways, “to form a community composed of brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another”. (Pope Francis, Peace Message 2021)
Dear sisters and brothers, I wish you a happy New Year, and take care not only of yourself but of one another.