The joy that comes with Christmas is eternal. It offers each one of us an eternal destiny of friendship with God and each other. Christmas is the celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation when God became a human being so that every human being can become a child of God and share in His inner life of eternal joy. We can never exhaust the truth and joy of Christmas because it is the Gift of God Himself to each one of us. We celebrate the nearness of God to each one of us, His inseparability from the human race, the intimacy of the indwelling of the Trinity. Christmas really is the greatest and truest story ever told.

This year I would like to put before you three truths that emerge from the Christmas story and are indelibly written in the soul of Legion spirituality. Firstly, the Angel Gabriel said to Mary: ‘Nothing is impossible to God.’ And Mary responds with an absolute: ‘Yes’ to that truth and changes the whole course of history. From that moment the whole world is flooded with God’s grace because God becomes incarnate in human flesh and identifies Himself with us real sinners. Impossibility had no place in the life and vocabulary of Mary. Apart from the mystery of the Incarnation we see Mary’s faith in Jesus as the Lord of the impossible at the marriage feast of Cana.

But where is this spirit of Mary concerning the impossible to be found in the Legion? I suggest it is expressed in the section of the Handbook on Symbolic Action. ‘Recourse to it will explode the impossibility which is of our own imagining. On the other hand, it enters in the spirit of faith into dramatic conflict with the genuine impossibility.’ May I suggest that every praesidium of the Legion in the coming year will re-read the section of the Handbook on Symbolic Action: Incarnation and then ask the question: Is there any genuine case in our praesidium where we are really undertaking symbolic action? We must try not to limit God and our apostolate only to what is seen as humanly possible with proper planning, organisation and resources.

Secondly, Christmas is obviously centred on Jesus Christ. In Mary there is absolutely no self-reference. She sings out: ‘My soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.’ There is no mistake about it: it is God who has worked all those great marvels in her and through her. Mary is absolutely centred on Jesus and not on herself. We find that same spirituality in that great patron of the Legion, St. John the Baptist, who figures so much during the preparation for Christmas. He cries out: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world…He must increase; I must decrease…I am not worthy to untie the straps of His sandals.’ He is utterly Christocentric and that is probably the reason why he is one of our special patrons and models. One spiritual writer tells us: ‘The pointing finger directs the gaze not to himself, but to Christ. If the gaze should rest on himself, he is unfaithful to his own nature. That is however the temptation of every apostle.’ The spirit of Mary is without any self-reference and that must be the spirit of the Legion. Let us pray that the Legion will not be too concerned with its own prestige and reputation but only glory with Mary in the Lord who does great things through her.

Thirdly, I want to stress what should be obvious, namely, that Christmas is a profound invitation to renew the spirit of our Christian joy. The first words of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary are: ‘Rejoice most highly favoured one.’ And joy is surely one of the most delightful characteristics of the spirit of Mary. Then we hear the words of the angel to the shepherds: ‘Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.’ A spirit of joy is inescapable in a truly Christian celebration of Christmas.

If you are fortunate enough to receive the great grace of being a Praetorian or Adjutorian member of the Legion and therefore pray an Office approved by the Church, you may come across this quotation in the Breviary from St, Leo the Great: ‘This is the day our Saviour was born; what a joy for us, my beloved! This is no season for sadness; this is the birthday of Life – that which annihilates the fear of death, and engenders joy, promising as it does immortality. Nobody is an outsider to this happiness. The same cause for joy is common to all, for as Our Lord found nobody free from guilt when He came to bring an end to death and to sin, so He came with redemption for all. Let the saint rejoice, for he hastens to his crown; let the sinner be filled with joy, for pardon is offered to him; let the Gentile be emboldened, for he is called to life.’ As it has been so often said in so many different ways: joy is the only infallible sign that you have really heard and accepted the Gospel and that you have really and truly encountered Christ in living faith and that you are really engaged in the apostolate of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. I must firmly add that joy is the sure sign that you are truly living in union with Mary.

The Handbook quotes the saying that the world belongs to those who love it most. I think that is a true saying, but there is no love that is not accompanied by joy. Joy is so essential to an authentic apostolate as Pope Francis says in his Apostolic Exhortation the Joy of the Gospel: ‘It is not by proselytising that the Church grows, but by attraction.’ The secret of the Legion apostolate must be its spirit of joy that has its origins in an authentic encounter with Jesus brought about by Mary the Mother of us both. Let me give the last words to Pope Francis: ‘The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.’ And, ’I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ. May you all deepen your friendship with Jesus and Mary this Christmas. Amen.

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