As Advent winds to a close, Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the birth of God. Every human heart should be gladdened by the tidings of comfort and joy that were revealed to poor shepherds two millennia ago. But some are particularly in need of hope and cheer. For persecuted Christians around the world, 2014 has been a trial by fire.
No, Miriam, Santa Claus did not forget you this year.
In these circumstances, though, and being far from home, it is a reasonable question for a 5-year-old to ask.
"Yes, he will come, he will never forget you," Miriam's mother, Hamama, told her.
During the Midnight Mass service Pope Francis said the most important thing is to let the Lord find us. The light of the Child Jesus was seen by “the unassuming”, “not ... by the arrogant, the proud, by those who made laws according to their own personal measures, who were closed off to others”.
At Christmas God shows us that He has not tired of us. Despite so many wars, injustice, torture, persecution, God has not stopped trusting in man and comes to his aid. The world lives of sterile immobility and apocalyptic terror. With Jesus' birth the world began to change and there are witnesses of hope in Iraq, in Hong Kong, in the Middle East. The revolution of solidarity.
Pope Francis condemns the violence of the Islamic State, asks for an intervention from the international community and supports ecumenism and dialogue with Islam. He also says that he hopes to have the chance to come to those Christian communities in person and to visit and to comfort them.
Theology can seem as distant from reality as a greeting card is from the terror of that first Christmas: a homeless couple with newborn, the sound of hoof-beats, the slaughter of innocents, desert flight to alien status in a strange land.
But theology is all we have to articulate a different outcome for our reality, so shadowed by trouble and rumors of more trouble to come, one world collapsing under its own weight with no sign yet of another world emerging more attentive to the needs of basic human community.
At the Angelus the Pope “Too often God knocks at our door but we are so caught up in our thoughts and concerns we do not even notice.”
“If you feel this wish to be better, it is He who is knocking. Don’t let him pass you by! Let us open our doors to Christ,” Francis urged faithful speaking off the cuff at the Sunday Angelus in St. Peter’s Square which is now graced by a huge Christmas tree and Nativity Scene.
The Christmas atmosphere of ornaments and carols that permeates the streets and shops of the low-income area of Ras el-Dekwaneh in north Beirut stops at the threshold of a small room in a narrow alley, which the joyous atmosphere does not seem to reach.
The door opens to a family whose members' faces are tinged with great sadness and whose children's eyes have lost the sparkle and enthusiasm of being engrossed with decorating for Christmas.
Thanks to its mediation role in the process of reconciliation between Cuba and the US, Vatican diplomacy finds itself back at the centre of the international stage. The good news of the thaw in relations was met with the Pope’s joy and came as a pleasant surprise to the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.
The “noble” actions of those who believe in dialogue and negotiation.
In an age when many, at different levels, consider the terms “dialogue” and “diplomacy” as equivalent to do-goodery and feeble compliance, when they are not believed to be as effective as swear words, the message the Americas have sent out with the thaw in US-Cuna relations is a significant one.
