Address of the Archbishop of Dublin,
the Most Reverend Dr. W. N. F. Empey,
on Christmas morning
in Christ Church Cathedral
at 11.00 a.m.

"and we beheld His Glory the glory as of the only begotten Son of God"

What a pulsating set of readings for this Christmas morning! Isaiah in his glorious passage gives us a song of celebration about the Lord visiting and redeeming his people. He tells his story in a beautiful way. He describes a runner with the news from a battle. He runs not in the manner of a man in despair, head bowed in weariness, but leaping and singing in joy so the watchmen on the battlements know good news is coming long before he can deliver it by word and they join in the runner's song. In joy and celebration Isaiah speaks of the God who will come to save his people once again, as He did from Egypt and Babylonia. What a beautiful picture is painted for us by the prophet.

Then the author of Hebrews takes up the story in the Epistle to the Hebrews "Long ago", he writes, "God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son". And who is the Son? "He is," says the writer, "the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being". In a few powerful words he tells us that this person is, none other than God Himself, our Redeemer.

But the story is not over yet for the exquisite first 14 verses of St. John's Gospel are still to come in our third reading. Here St. John reminds us that the beginning of the story was not in Bethlehem, in fact He never mentions the place. Listen to him "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God". St. John takes us back, not as I say to Bethlehem but back to eternity itself. As one writer put it, "There was never a time when the Son was not with the Father. Before the solar system wheeled through space, Jesus was there; when the continents were molten lava, Jesus was there; when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, Jesus was there". This was the One who emptied Himself to take our Flesh upon Him. The wonder of this extravagant act of Divine Love is so prodigal that it bedazzles our contemplation. There then is the heart of Christmas. The Divine comes to pitch His tent amongst us to redeem us and to reveal to us His glory.

THE GLORY OF GOD'S CREATION

In our Epistle for today we read that Jesus is the reflection of God's glory, while St. John reminds us that we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father's only Son. Glory - what does the word conjure up in our minds? Maybe worldly pomp and ceremony such as that which surrounds the coronation of a king; a state funeral; a victory parade or such like. On a much higher level we see it in creation, as the Breastplate of St. Patrick so beautifully puts it: "the virtues of the starlit heaven, the glorious sun's life-giving ray, the whiteness of the moon at even …… the stable earth, the deep salt sea around the old eternal rocks". Yes there is much glory in creation, as in great art, music, poetry or literature.

However, it is not worldly glory of which St. John speaks, as he makes abundantly clear in a later chapter. St. John says, "How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from one alone who is God"?

THERE WAS LITTLE GLORY IN BETHLEHEM OR CALVARY

Mind you on the surface there is little glory in a cowshed in Bethlehem or in the brutal place of execution at Calvary. It is difficult to see it in such places isn't it? But St. John wants us to look behind those grim realities, to the One who was born and to the One who suffered such barbarity. For St John the glorious out-pouring of love, the glorious truth lying behind Bethlehem and Calvary, is that "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son".

But it is not only in the extremities of His Incarnate life that St. John sees the glory of Jesus. It is visible in every stage of His ministry in His teaching, in His miracles, in His caring - in every detail of His life of which we are aware. Everything is done and said to the glory of the Father of which He, Jesus is the perfect reflection. As St. John says "we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God". The question for us today is how do we see His glory? and how do we respond to it?

OUR FIRST RESPONSE MUST BE PRAISE AND ADORATION

Surely as believers our response must first be an out-pouring of praise and adoration to Him who in an extravagant outpouring of love gave His only Son to be with us for evermore. The Pauline Epistles literally throb with great outbursts of praise to the One who so loves, for you know at the heart of the glory is love. And this morning as we are carried along in a great outburst of praise by the ministry of word and sacrament, by a beautifully ordered liturgy and the glorious music of organ and choir, surely our hearts throb within us "lost in wonder, love and praise".

OUR TREATMENT OF OTHERS MUST REFLECT GOD'S GLORY

That is one response to God's Glory and it is an important one. But there is something else which is complementary to it. Remember the words of Jesus in Chapter 25 of St. Matthew's Gospel? He pictures the scene when He comes again in glory (that word again). All the people of the world are gathered before Him and He separates them like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats. He says to the people on His right "I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, a stranger and you took me in" and so on. They are puzzled by this and ask, "Lord, when did we do all these things?" and the Lord replies, "Truly, I say to you as you did for the least of these my brethren you did it to me". That's it, isn't it? It is in terms of self-giving love, which has nothing to do with a patronising spirit, that we reflect God's glory as individuals. If we can recognise Christ in others and serve them, then we are on the road to reflecting God's glory.

THE HOMELESS

It is not merely a matter of giving money to charities, which is of course, most important. It is much more than that. It is nothing less than a Christ-like attitude in our daily lives. For as St. John looked behind the shed at Bethlehem and the brutal Cross of Calvary so we too are called to look behind the homeless adult or child lying huddled in a doorway - that person is not to be dismissed as a wretch to be pitied but as another child of God for whom His Son lived and died and lives. If we recognise Christ in such a person then we would be on the Road to reflecting God's Glory in the world.

IMMIGRANTS

Our attitudes to others must reflect God's glory. There are far too many who resent the presence of immigrants in our country and often express themselves in a brutal and abusive manner. For my own part I rejoice in this multi-cultural atmosphere. At the same time I can to some extent understand that there are those who are confused by this sudden transformation and react with a degree of unease. What I cannot understand is the abuse heaped upon others by elements in our society simply because they are in some ways different from them. Such attitudes do not reflect God's glory.

THE FAILURE OF THE RECENT BUDGET

What then about our nation? How does it reflect God's glory? In Christian terms the glory of a nation lies not in its wealth or its power but in how it uses that wealth and how it cares for its minorities. How did our recent budget, for example, reflect our glory as a nation? The short answer is that it did not. Many of us might think that we would love to be the Minister for Finance but I wonder would we. Before a budget is ever presented the minister has to face many powerful lobbies, which is not the experience of most of us. But there are people, many people, who have no powerful lobby to speak for them and all too often they have to be satisfied by the crumbs which fall from the master's table. The Conference of Religious of Ireland spelt this out very clearly in their reaction to the budget. For example they point out that a person in long term unemployment will be better off by £8 per week while a person on £40,000 would be £64 better off. It could hardly be thought that this was a brave attempt to bring the poor out of the poverty trap. It was not a reflection of the nation's glory.

OUR RESPONSE TO THIRD WORLD DEBT

We witness to God's glory, however, not only as individuals but also as communities and nations. The glory of the nations of the world in Christian terms is not seen in terms of wealth and power but in the way in which that wealth or power is exercised in the service of all humankind. By that standard there is not much of God's glory to be observed in the response of the wealthy nations to the needs of the poverty-stricken Third World where, for example, six million children die every year. Please remember that a high percentage of those deaths are caused by the fact that governments have to spend such a high proportion of their income in repaying debts to wealthy countries or their agents that they are unable to provide basic services like medicine and education for their own people. Obscene, isn't it?

In conclusion may I say that the very last words spoken in this Eucharist are by no means insignificant. We are not dismissed with the words 'Go in Peace' but rather 'Go in peace to love and serve the Lord'. 'To love and serve the Lord' - the One who became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.