I am writing the Sunday before Christmas. Many things can happen in this beloved land before families, friends, neighbors come together to share faith, food and gifts.

This Christmas will surely remain a special memory for many. Fundamental questions quickly emerge. How can we celebrate with a world at war, when the destruction continues in the Ukraine and the Middle East, a place where millions of human beings direct their thoughts to remember the nativity scene with its poverty, its stars and the warm breath of animals sheltering a human being that would mark before and later in our shared history, the beloved Jesus, the close face of the God we imagine far away, was subjected to barbarism, pain, suffering and death?

We learn from Turkey

And here we are amidst the confusion and indignation caused by the lifting of the veils of the metastases of corruption and violence rooted in the heart of the institutions that must guarantee our safety, freedom and rights. And discover the tentacles of the monster that seems to invade all spaces.

And even closer, in our cities, neighborhoods, compounds, citadels or roads, the collective fear of going out, seeing a stranger approaching or hearing news of more victims clinging to bodies.

How to live Christmas so that meetings do not become another verbal battlefield or that avoiding tricky topics does not become a competition of easy smiles that hide what worries us?

“To reach the dawn, there is no other way than night”, wrote K. Gibran.

How can these meetings, usually prepared with great enthusiasm and expectations, where chefs strive to provide the best of their recipes, respite and recreation together bravely approach the everyday life that awaits us?

Be useful before important

In times of fainting, you may have to plunge into the darkness that hides millions of stars. Maybe we have to go even lower, touch the bottom. Dive deeper into that being so close that we know little and bad. Yourself. That joy does not depend on others or circumstances, but that we discover and keep it like a treasure in a mine, a light that flickers in us, where we are truly one with all creation and with the creator. Maybe it will be a good time to put in order all that internal noise that is produced in our lives by being connected to devices, appliances, networks, constantly getting arguments from others, conflicts from others, without giving ourselves time to look each other in the eye. and understand each other.

What if instead of sending messages to those who are far away to wish them happiness, (they will repeatedly do the same with messages copied from others), we get closer to those close to us and enjoy their company, the very existence and sharing.

A new Christmas can happen, a rebirth of a relationship that experiences love in its purest essence, attention and care for others, the joy of being with others. And almost without wanting to heal the root, we help change the reality of the violence that is the result of what we previously sowed or allowed to grow.

Merry Christmas. (OR)