People preparing to celebrate Christmas 2022
Pic by Pradeep Pathirana

The classic festival of joy and peace has dawned again. With the fall of snow hovering over the northern hemisphere in the heart of the winter season and by contrast, torrid and warm weather prevailing in the southern hemisphere, Joy marks mankind as it celebrates the annual festival of Christmas and songs of peace ring out in all parts of the globe in one magnificent and incredible chorus of innumerable voices in harmony. 

Faces are brimming with smiles and streets are lit in multi-colour décor as humanity is aglow with the mystique of the Christmas aura, yet blissfully ignorant perhaps of the great event which Christianity heralds to be the Mystery of Incarnation, God becoming man in Jesus of Nazareth, the Eternal Galilean.

Twenty centuries have seen this annual phenomenon taking on mankind’s global expanse turning the entire festive season into a carnival of ecstasy and exuberance. 

In the vast expanse of the non-Christian populations and intruding into the die-hard spirit of secular culture, Christmas has braced itself unconditionally as the most global religious festival and cultural fiesta marking the year’s end annually. 

 Every Christmas is a call to joy and peace whilst challenging all that is in stark contrast to these values so specifically knit with Christmas. 

Indeed, the world scene at the moment is a far cry from the spirit of peace, human fraternity and brotherhood which are so much in want today with social relationships in much disarray.

 The sheer lack of accountability, absence of transparency and want of collective responsibility on the part of those wielding public office have led to serious deterioration and the wane of civic institutions.

The bribery, corruption and waste in public administration have led to the loss of trust even in democratic institutions. The bankruptcy of several countries has been reported in the recent past in news media to the utter dismay of the world’s good-willed people who desire and long to enjoy good things in life’s making it an exciting enterprise instead of it crumbling into a tale of woes as well as a litany of agonies and sorrows.

 Peace is still possible through patient and honest dialogue inspired by care and concern for others.  All violence is self-defeating and in modern wars, there are no winners but instead, all end up as miserable losers as we sadly gaze at the sorry spectacle of Russia’s war on Ukraine imposing one’s will over an unyielding another sovereign nation. Foreign media also bring to the sanctuary of our own homes the disasters of other local and regional conflicts afflicting nations and peoples on other continents. There cannot be joy where there is pain and no peace amidst conflicts and tensions.

Generally, all over the world, there is global unrest when it comes to matters of social justice and the smothering of human rights. The mass migrations caused by the economic crisis, political violence and human rights violations give rise to a mass exodus of helpless people fleeing their lands to escape the dictatorial rule of those in seats of power. Distraught Cubans once again are experiencing such an exodus to nearby Florida looking for greener pastures. All these factors are a drain on joy and peace in countries and among nations. A false and unfounded sense of insecurity affecting a nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity can lead to unjustifiable aggressions and invasions. The race for nuclear supremacy and military superiority is today’s number one threat and challenge to world peace and to all those sincerely working for world peace. 

As Pope Francis has recently remarked: “Instead of cultivating the beautiful garden of our world, we are setting it on fire with bombs, guns, missiles, arsenal, enmity and hatred”. 

These are veritable ingredients of global destruction that can lead to apocalyptic proportions never seen before in the history of the world. It is humanity on the path to almost extinction.

The sheer lack of accountability, absence of transparency and want of collective responsibility on the part of those wielding public office have led to serious deterioration and the wane of civic institutions.

 We hear of many high-level discussions and fora on peace and planning of peace strategies at the diplomatic level, yet often to no avail and falling short of expectations and targets since the stakeholders tend to negotiate out of fear and not fearing to negotiate instead as President John Kennedy espoused in his inaugural speech in January 1961. World religions too today see the need to be active partners in peace efforts and religious leaders have engaged in imposing symbolic gestures to inspire peace-building. In the dire need to build a new world of constructive and sustaining international relationships of goodwill and cooperation, they have challenged leaders of nations to sit at the table of sincere peace dialogues in striving to discover viable paths to peace, resolving conflicts and getting over tensions. 

 More recently, Pope Francis invited the heads of State of Israel and Palestine for a peace meeting that ended with planting a symbolic tree in the Vatican gardens as a sign thereof the determination to have their peoples living in peace together.

That was an ardent appeal to bring to an end a civil war that had raged for five years with about 400,000 people dead and more than a third of the country’s 12 million people uprooted, sparking Africa’s worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The worldwide multi-religious alliance that mobilizes locally, regionally and globally religious leaders as key actors for peace is the largest NGO in the UN: Religions for Peace. It operates especially in post-conflict situations to achieve transitional justice for the victims concerned and helps set up mechanisms for bringing social integration as well as national reconciliation based on the perennial values of the religious faiths.
These are some of the praiseworthy efforts that endeavour to take up the challenge and call of Christmas in the pursuit of peace that brings joy and contentment to a world much beseeched by tensions of many a kind. The world of today needs to be inspired and sustained by this wonderful and transforming peace-spirit and joy that make for a genuine and meaningful celebration of Christmas. Very often Christmas gets eclipsed by a false external glitter and gaiety to the detriment of the real meaning of the festival being lost and marginalized.