Thank you for your friendship and interest in the revival of the Thomas More Centre throughout 2023!

It has been wonderful to receive so many encouraging emails, letters, and phone messages about the TMC and our Social and Cultural Studies this year.

1. Thoughts to Bethlehem

As we head spiritually and liturgically towards Bethlehem – that small town on what is now the West Bank of Israel – there are two apparently contradictory aspects of that place that should demand our attention this Christmas.

The first is, of course, that this ancient place with roots in the history of King David and Judea is redolent with the Hebrew name Beth-lehem. It means, “house of food” or the “house of bread”. The Hebrew for bread is cognate with l‘chaim – “to life”. Bread is life, but for Christians, there is only one true Bread.

Here was born into the brutality and unsteady order on the fringes of the Roman Empire – the “Bread” of hope and life – born not as an ideology or the spark of a movement or political force, but definitively as a tiny, helpless but actual person: Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI, who so often drew our attention to the radical paradox of God’s actions, spoke during his visit to Bethlehem in 2009:

“Christ brought a Kingdom which is not of this world, yet a Kingdom which is capable of changing this world, for it has the power to change hearts, to enlighten minds and to strengthen wills. By taking on our flesh, with all its weaknesses, and transfiguring it by the power of His Spirit, Jesus has called us to be witnesses of His victory over sin and death.” (Benedict XVI, Homily, Manger's Square Bethlehem)

It is the principles of that Kingdom, which as Tolkien and other great writers assure us, has already won the ultimate victory – to which the TMC aspires.

We cannot ignore the present aspect of this “little town” that seems such a harsh contradiction of Benedict’s words above.

Bethlehem is so close to the catastrophe of war and the seemingly escalating death that lies only 120 kilometres to its southwest in Gaza.

It is as if the forces of evil and human destruction are compelled yet again to obliterate the memory of the infant Prince of Peace, and to misdirect the “people of goodwill” to whom the angels brought the blessings of peace.

Why are yet again so many innocents being slaughtered, starved and dislocated, just as Israel and Saudi Arabia were approaching a historic peace accord? How is it that Hebrew hostages, Christians, babies, families, whole peoples are being destroyed?

According to the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, nearly 2.5 per cent of the pre-war Christian population in Gaza – one person in every forty – has been killed during this war. 650 of these Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians are sheltering in a Catholic Church without security, food, water or electricity.

It is sobering to know this, even as Christmas approaches. Is it inexperience, panic, ill-discipline or is it blood-lust and hatred exploding over their heads and from the rubble outside?

Terrorism has bred more terrorism, not peace or justice. The lines of just military engagement are bleeding out in the lives of non-combatants. This is a cause for outrage and lamentation as was the massacre of Israelis some months before.

Can we have hope along with lamentation? Yes, because we do believe that the presence of the Infant King can and does to a startling degree bring about the change of hearts, minds, and lives – even in the midst of suffering and pain.

Christmas is all the more merry the closer to the Divine Child we humbly lean, realising that the victory is His.

We can pray earnestly for His peace.

We can give our love not sentimentally – but with His love – through alms to authentic groups on the ground in the Holy Land.

One is the Bible Lands campaign of Aid to the Church in Need, which is helping Christians and other asylum seekers from and in the midst of the conflict.

Another is to support the work of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre (EOHS) which is an ancient order devoted to defending and assisting Christians and others in the Holy Land. They have set up a special DGR fund by which members and others can lend support.

As Lieutenant of the Victoria sector, Kevin Bailey, said this week: “It is worth remembering that there is a tradition that the Holy Family in their escape from the murderous intention of King Herod rested in Gaza.” Gaza and its people are close to the heart of the EOHS.

(For more information, you may contact the Victorian branch of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre – email secretary Nick De Weger at nick@deweger.info)

2. Sincere thanks 

At home, a great sign of hope for the TMC and its network is the brilliant young team that is making the TMC a reality in their areas: my deep and sincere (and elderly) thanks to:

Warwick, Elizabeth and the team in Perth; Luke, Mark, and Nicole in Queensland; Catherine, Fr Sean and the team in Albury; Gabriel, Ann-Maree, and all of you.

A hope-filled and peaceful Christmas to all!

Our Lady of Palestine, pray for us.

Anna Krohn
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre