Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, appeared on NBC's "Today" show to discuss the meaning of Christmas, saying a main message was to bring people together in a feeling of connection.
Dolan stressed this was something important in these times when "there almost seems to be a hyper individualism . . . you walk down the street and nobody will even look at you and say, 'hello.'"
He also pointed out Christmas brings out this feeling, because "God is connected with us in that baby at Bethlehem. There is that connection with God, there is a connection with one another."
The archbishop said another important message of the holiday is the "liberation that comes when we finally admit, I need some help. This is beyond me."
This is particularly relevant on Christmas when we realize "there is certain help that only the Lord can give, and he did it that first Christmas when He became one of us."
Dolan also said he "detected this year that people might seem to be more conscious of the darkness that is in the world."
He pointed out, both Hanukkah and Christmas come at the darkest time of the year, with December 21 the date when the sun is at its lowest.
"We kind of celebrate that the sun turns around and begins to go back up," the archbishop said, adding that after Hanukkah and Christmas "there is a couple seconds more of light each day, because the light always triumphs over darkness."
Dolan also emphasized the power of prayer brings together the two themes of connection and help, saying, through prayer "I'm united to the one that knows me better than anyone else in the world because He created me."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.