Fr Liam Power: So much goodwill in the Advent Season

There is a great buzz around the city with the Winterval festival in full swing and with the Christmas lights illuminating the streets and sidewalks.

We celebrated the first Sunday of Advent, the four-week season that begins the Church’s liturgical year. It is a time of hope and preparation for Christmas, and where Christians throughout the world celebrate the coming of Christ in Bethlehem, his coming to us in grace every day and the hope that, despite so much evil in the world, love will triumph.

With commercial Christmas in full swing in our city, we, as Christians, could easily be lured into solely secular festivity. But I think it is too easy to decry the commercialism of Christmas and cynically proclaim that the spirit of Christmas is lost.

Despite the commercial hype, I am always encouraged by the spirit of generosity and goodwill evidenced by the huge number of fundraising activities throughout the city during the Advent season. 

The Lions Club runs a big Christmas hamper appeal, raising funds for the St Vincent de Paul Society and Waterford Food Bank. Its feature event is, of course, the Carol Concert in Waterford Cathedral on December 13. WLR FM, the local radio station, is hosting a number of events throughout the city and county also in aid of the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Parishioners in St Joseph and Benildus are collecting new clothes and toiletries, which will be donated to Susie to support her programme for the homeless in Railway Square. The parish Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society launched their annual Christmas appeal at all Masses last weekend. The response from parishioners was overwhelmingly generous.

So commerce does not obliterate the Advent call for people to be alert and awake and to recognise the presence of Christ in the poor and needy. 

With the economy doing so well, we could easily assume that poverty is eradicated. But I know of so-called middle-class families who are struggling financially because of the increase in food and energy prices. 

Social Justice Ireland published a report on poverty in November, bearing out the extent of poverty in our country. The report states that 11.7% of the population are living in poverty (over 600,000 individuals). The poverty line is set at 60% of the median income, which for 2025 is €366 per week for a single adult. As the core social welfare rate is €244, the single adult is €122 below the poverty line.

Essential costs have risen significantly with food prices increasing by 20.2% and energy prices increasing by 58.2% from 2020 to 2025, subjecting households in the lower income brackets to severe financial stress. 

Government policies have failed to alleviate this pressure. Social Justice Ireland concludes that budgetary choices over the last few years have favoured the higher earners, resulting in a widening gap between rich and poor. They propose a universal basic income system as a potential solution to ensure that all people have sufficient income to live with dignity.

Pope Leo, in his first Apostolic Exhortation entitled 'I have Loved You', exhorts all Christians to adopt a preferential option for the poor. The Pope teaches that the Church, to be faithful to her vocation, must not only share the condition of the poor but stand at their side and work actively for their integral development. He points out that it is so easy to fail to see the plight of the poor and to live as if they do not exist. 

He exhorts all Christians to devote time to the poor, “to give them loving attention, to stand by them in difficult moments, striving to transform their situation.” 

A charitable response through almsgiving offers a chance to halt before the poor, look into their eyes and to share something of ourselves with them.

However, Leo affirms that charity is not enough. Christians must challenge unjust structures that support huge disparities in the distribution of wealth. 

“The wealth of the few continues to grow exponentially while the gap between rich and poor increases.” 

He reserves his most critical comments for “ideologues that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace, which supports the claim that a free market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty”. 

No, policies must be designed to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth.

The preferential option for the poor is based on the theological conviction that God’s actions are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. 

“In the poor,” Leo writes, “God continues to speak to us, so we must let ourselves be evangelised by the poor.” 

They are at the heart of the Church. Of course, we have the immortal words of Jesus himself, “As long as you did this to the least of my brothers, (i.e. feed those who are hungry, clothe the naked, etc.) you did it to me.” 

The Advent season offers us the graced opportunity to be alert to the presence of Christ in the poor and needy and to respond accordingly. Doing so brings depth and meaning to our festive joy.