BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is in response to 'LETTER: Barrie must change approach toward vulnerable people,' published Dec. 12.
At some time in the weeks leading up to Christmas, most churches will hear the Magnificat, where the mother of Jesus, Mary, informs us of what God is doing through the birth of her child.
She says:
He has scattered the the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
The cute little baby is just the beginning of a radical mission to turn the world upside down; to change hard-heartedness into compassion; to recognize and meet the needs of the vulnerable and disadvantaged among us; to see neighbours in the faces of people we struggle to accept and accommodate.
Mary's words are sharply judgmental of the proud, the powerful and the rich.
The message of Christmas of peace on earth and goodwill to all is what we are called to practice for the rest of the year.
Christmas is not about buying gifts for people who don't need anything, nor is it about sentimentality.
The message is simple and clear: we are invited to love and care for each other.
Rev. George Moore
Barrie
