Compassion and hope for 2008

Christmas is a real challenge to remind us that, it is by reaching out to those who often live anonymously or are lonely, to assist and befriend them, is where we find the Jesus we believe in, the one who asks us to share hope with all humans, to act with Christian compassion.

I believe those people of compassion and hope who respond to His request, whoever they are, are the best of humanity. They are concrete evidence of Jesus Christ’s birth and presence in our world that continues to deliver transformation from that time until today.

Those who practise Christian love, experience God’s love and love the “poor”, not simply because they are “poor”, but because as fellow humans they must be respected as God’s creation. They defend them. Try to protect them. Listen to them and respond to them. Therefore, because their compassion is not only a “gesture” of love, they act to defend the victims, out of God’s love.

This action generates conflict, persecution and confrontation with structures of power. Their compassion and their concrete conviction that God’s hope can transform the world, makes them ready to face and confront the same suffering experience of those who are victims of sin and cruelty in our world.

There are many ways to express compassion (human rights movements, justice and peace groups, the search for a more “just” world, and so on). These examples invite us to reflect that compassion and hope are possible. It is something that you and I can practice, as Jesus Christ’s disciples, by sharing our lives with those migrants and refugees and disadvantaged people closest to us in the here and now.

It is among those who are forced or decide to migrate, those who are victims of violence, those who are abused, those living marginalised lives or the migrant and refugee who we exclude in our society, that Jesus Christ finds the best expression.

It is there where God looks with infinite love and invites us to bring attitudes of compassion and to deliver hope. Then let’s ensure we wish and share our “Happy Christmas”, the Celebration of Jesus’ Birth, as a gift to the whole world by not being exclusive, discriminatory of others and by accepting with respect our differences.

Since our gift at this time is to share that hope which is transcendent beyond religion, nationality, political affiliation, ideology and to find the dignity of each individual human person. This is the best present for Christmas this year from each one of us to the world.