Hope and honesty dominate themes of Christian leaders’ Christmas messages

Francis has urged followers to be ‘bold, compassionate and responsible’ while confronting the challenges of the modern world.

Pope Francis is surrounded by children at the end of the Christmas Eve mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on December 24, 2024. Picture: AFP.

The country’s top Catholic has encouraged Australians to stand up against lies and resist the cult of manufactured indignation, while the Pope urged followers to not lose hope amid turmoil and ongoing wars.

In a homily laden with critiques of modern culture and consumerism, the Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, told the Christmas Day mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney that people could be held “hostage to instincts and jealousies” but he encouraged forgiveness and redemption.

“The culture of excessive consumption, manufactured indignation and plain lies plays to our lesser natures and is hard to resist,” he said. “We often go with the flow, rather than standing up for the truth.”

It followed a similar plea from the Pope at the traditional Christmas Eve mass at the newly restored St Peter’s Basilica for followers to stand up for the truth and to be “bold, compassionate and responsible”.

“Hope calls us, as St Augustine would say, to be upset with things that are wrong and find the courage to change them,” Francis said.

“Hope calls us to become pilgrims in search of truth, dreamers who never tire, women and men open to being challenged by God’s dream, a dream of a new world where peace and justice reign.”

During a mass in which the pontiff opened the Holy Door to mark the 2025 Jubilee Year, Francis, the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, urged followers not to give up hope despite ongoing war and tragedy.

“Tonight the door of hope has opened wide to the world,” he said.

“We too are called to recover lost hope, to renew that hope in our hearts and to sow seeds of hope amid the bleakness of our time and of our world.

“We think about wars, the children gunned down, the bombs falling on schools and hospitals. Do not delay, do not hesitate but allow yourselves to be drawn along by the good news.”

Hope, Francis said, was a promise, not an outcome. “It’s not the happy ending of a film,” he said.

“It is a summons not to tarry, be kept back by old habits or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness.”

At the Christmas morning eucharist, Dean of Brisbane’s St John’s Anglican Cathedral Peter Catt also spoke of holding on to hope in the bid to strive for a better world, despite feelings of powerlessness. “Our celebration of Christmas seeks to challenge the fatalism that the seeming solidness of the world seems to promote,” he said. “Christmas invites us to look at the world from a different point of view.

“Inspired by (baby Jesus), we proclaim peace in a world dominated by warmongers, we proclaim justice in a world dominated by self-indulgent billionaires and we proclaim hope in a world that threatens to overwhelm so many with a sense of hopelessness.”

In her Christmas message, Uniting Church in Australia president the Reverend Charissa Suli also spoke of hope and its ability to ease heavy emotional burdens.

“Let us show up for our neighbours, treat each other with compassion and kindness and build a future where unity, peace and love conquers hate and fear,” she said.

“My friends, hope is here, hope is alive and it is up to us to share it.”