Archbishop Edward Gilbert, in his homily at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Christmas Eve, described Christmas as an opportunity for believers to help unbelievers.

The Archbishop told the faithful "Christmas brings us back to the beginning; renergises our hope." But, he saw it also as a goad for the Church to "gather together people who accept Christmas and work collaboratively to build community on the values of Jesus."

Archbishop Gilbert said that in a world filled with so much evil and the consequent fear, "we can almost forget about the existence of grace, holiness and hope."

But, Christmas, he stressed, makes it impossible "to forget about grace, about holiness, and about hope." He said the season puts evil and fear into proper perspective and "offers the world an alternate way of life."

Archbishop Gilbert called Christmas a celebration by persons who had chosen this alternate way. He said persons who have accepted the meaning of Christmas have a duty "to proclaim the wonder of Christmas and to tell people the truth; that there is now a powerful light to challenge the darkness."

The Archbishop said the responsibility to tell the world the truth was more urgent today because of secularism. "As a young priest," he said, the people he met had some religious affiliation. But, nowadays, he noted, it is "not rare to meet people without any religious affiliation at all."

"It is up to the Church," said the Archbishop, "to help them with their search for meaning and their search for God."

In his address the Archbishop pointed to four meanings of Christmas:

•  God has kept his word.

•  The yearning of God's people has been satisfied; Christ has satisfied their "fundamental incompleteness."

•  God and his people will never be separated again, unless people choose separation.

•  We have a world of light and a world of darkness and we have to make a choice. We cannot have it both ways.