Christmas: A Life Without God Produces Idolatry

Media Release | 19 December, 2016

Yet, Christmas is celebrated in an Australian world that either privatises religion or is tempted to believe that an adult life is best lived either without or against God.

The great paradox is that by placing God aside we replace God with many “gods”.

Indeed, it is not atheism but idolatry that Australians must guard against!

But at Christmas, Christians want to respectfully remind the world that humanity cannot live without God. At Christmas we can too easily replace God with the shallow “gods” of consumerism, materialism, and various forms of selfishness.

The true Christmas spirit replaces these fashionable “gods” that are fixated on “my choice” with choices that produce joy and hope in family life and benefit the strugglers – especially the homeless, refugees, the poor and marginalised.

This Christmas, let us choose the one God and reject the many “gods”.

Happy Christmas and New Year to you all!

Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn