Christmas Season 2022: Jesus invites us to walk with Him

"As we celebrate the Lord's birth, we come to appreciate more fully that He walks with us," says Cardinal Blase Cupich, "but also that He urges us to join Him in walking with others, especially our sisters and brothers who are in need."

For, as the Archbishop of Chicago reminds us, "it is in them that we meet Him."

The Season of Christmas, the Cardinal continues, "invites us to do all that we can to be close to those in need. . For, in sharing the joy and hope of Christmas with them, we come to know Who this Christ Child is, Emmanuel, God who is with us in every step of our life. Let us bring that joy and hope to others and come to know more deeply the great meaning of Christmas."

Cardinal Blase Cupich's Message for Christmas 2022

This year, perhaps more than in other years, we need the joy and hope of Christmas, the joy and the hope that comes in, knowing that God is with us. And taking on our flesh, the Son of God shares our human experiences, our successes and failures, what delights us and saddens us, our anxieties and our dreams.

As we celebrate the Lord's birth, we come to appreciate more fully that He walks with us, but also that He urges us to join Him in walking with others, especially our sisters and brothers who are in need. For it is in them that we meet Him.

Walking with them gives us a chance to enter into their lives and come to know them better. Imagine being a refugee or asylum seeker with your family fleeing from violence and terrible danger. Imagine living in a community torn apart by the daily threat of gun violence. Imagine facing life-threatening illnesses. Imagine being parents of a sick child in the hospital over Christmas. And imagine living in the war zones of Ukraine. They are all the Christ Child born into the world facing homelessness, danger, poverty, and want.

This Holy season invites us to do all that we can to be close to those in need. For, in sharing the joy and hope of Christmas with them, we come to know Who this Christ child is, Emmanuel, God who is with us in every step of our life. Let us bring that joy and hope to others and come to know more deeply the great meaning of Christmas.

Please know that I will hold you and your families close in prayer at the Lord's table as I celebrate Mass on Christmas Day, asking God-Who-is-with-us to fill you with His joy, His peace and hope.

May God bless you, and Merry Christmas.

Blase Cardinal Cupich
Archbishop of Chicago