大象传媒

GOOD MORNING

34 years ago, today, the revolutionary housing bill was published that paved the way for millions to own their own homes. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

For me, one of the most powerful words has always been the word, 鈥渉ome.鈥�

It evokes deep sentiments of warmth, protection and safety.

And at this time of year, brings back memories of childhood Christmases at home 鈥� the lit-fire of woodblocks stacked high in the hearth; my mother arranging and re-arranging the lights on the tree; the smell of ham baking in honey; and through the windows of the house 鈥� the cold world outside seeming still.

For many, Christmas is the time of coming home.聽

But for those families who find themselves without the security even of a house聽 Christmas, with all its rhetoric of joy, goodwill and consumption, must seem this year like a memory.聽

In many homes and churches the central image of the Christmas celebration is not the tree but the crib -聽 a visual aid to belief first used over a thousand years ago in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Later, it was popularized by St Francis of Assisi who used first a crib of living animals, then, carved figures, to make the birth of Jesus live vividly in the imagination of the simple Christian believers of central Italy.聽

Today, throughout the world, it continues to do the same.聽

It seems to me that the image of the crib, more than ever before, evokes compassion for history鈥檚 most famous new parents, who could give their son only the dubious protection of a stable.

Father remind us of the heart of the Christmas story and its true spirit: that this family 鈥� Joseph, Mary and their son - refused to despair and remained in hope despite the meagreness of their surroundings.

May we not forget those who in the last year have lost their hearth and home; and this Christmas are living with the pain of homelessness.

AMEN