Episode Transcript
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This will be my first Christmas in Brisbane.
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The weather here has certainly been warm,
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but so has the welcome I've received
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for which I'm very grateful.
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This year is also the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea,
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which gave us a clear definition of Jesus as truly divine
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rather than just a special messenger sent by God.
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Its wording is contained in the Nicene Creed
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which we use at Sunday Mass.
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Proclaiming Jesus as the son of God is particularly significant at Christmas
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when we celebrate His birth.
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The humility and vulnerability of Jesus' birth in the stable of Bethlehem
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is just as much part of God's self-revelation
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as is Jesus walking on the water
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or being glorified in the transfiguration.
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Jesus reveals a God who is not only transcendent and all powerful
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but also intimately close to us.
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Jesus takes on our very flesh and blood
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entering fully into our human experience
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even to the point of His suffering and death on the cross.
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The God of Jesus Christ is not one who is remote,
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distant, and inaccessible to us,
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but one who accompanies us always,
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even on the darkest and most difficult parts of our human journey.
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We need to hear again the Christmas proclamation
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that God is with us.
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In Jesus' birth, God enters utterly into our human experience
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so that everything about our lives can be taken up
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and transformed in His divine life.
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I wish you and your families
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the peace, hope and joy
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of this Christmas season.
