Celebrating Christmas at Christ the King Cathedral, Cardinal Stephen Brislin reflected on the Gospel of Luke, which situates the birth of Christ firmly within history and human vulnerability. With remarkable economy, Saint Luke names rulers and political motives, reminding believers that God does not remain distant from the world but enters it fully, engaging its realities from within.

In his Christmas homily, Cardinal Brislin recalled the census ordered by Caesar Augustus that forced Mary and Joseph to leave their home, placing them among the displaced and the powerless of their time. The Son of God was not born in centres of influence or religious prestige, but in Bethlehem, “the least of the towns of Judah,” and laid in a manger. In this deliberate choice, God draws close to those who live on the margins, revealing a divine preference for humility, fragility, and poverty.

Cardinal Brislin noted how this experience resonates deeply in South Africa, marked by forced removals, migrant labour, and the ongoing displacement of families. The Christmas story, he said, speaks also to today’s migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers worldwide — now greater in number than at the end of the Second World War. Christmas proclaims Emmanuel, God-with-us, not as a distant comfort but as an active intervention in situations of injustice and suffering.

This divine closeness challenges believers not to stand apart from those who remain excluded — the poor, victims of violence, and communities scarred by war. Echoing Pope Leo XIV’s exhortation Dilexit te, the Cardinal reminded the faithful that Christians are not called to bring God to the poor, but to encounter God already present among them.

Turning to the land of Jesus’ birth, Cardinal Brislin lamented that the region once filled with angelic songs of peace is now marked by conflict, especially in Gaza and the West Bank. Remembering children maimed by war and families living in fear, he invited prayer for all victims of violence, including those in Sudan, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Luke’s Gospel, he continued, entrusts the first proclamation of Christmas not to the powerful but to shepherds — themselves excluded and mistrusted. The Good News is thus revealed from the margins, with a preferential option for the poor, and entrusted to all.

As the Jubilee Year of Hope draws to a close, Cardinal Brislin concluded his homily with a call to listen attentively to the “small voices” of society. True hope, the Cardinal suggested, may be found not in comfort, but in fragile places where God continues to be born.