Christmas Plea for 2003?
As I attended mass this year at the Church of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel, my own mind also drifted away to Bethlehem some seven
kilometres south of Jerusalem. It drifted away to the little town that did not
welcome Mary and Joseph as they sought an inn so that Mary could deliver a
child - Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. Sad really! This is the town that
proclaimed a message of justice, love and peace to the whole world over two
millennia ago. Yet, it is the same town that now experiences hatred, bloodshed
and humiliation! Is this the
message of Christmas, and do most of us celebrating the event in our own homes
even realise the extent of the pain that the local Christians of this town are
experiencing today?
Just over a week ago, a delegation of leaders of the
Religious Conferences of the United States visited Israel and the Palestinian
occupied territories. This delegation consisted of the Conference of Major
Superiors of Men and the Leadership of Women Religious. Those two movements
comprise around 1500 men and women religious leaders who are responsible for
more than 700 Catholic institutes in the USA and whose membership represents
well over 100,000 Catholic sisters, brothers and priests. Joining them on the
trip was a delegation of the Conference of the Religious of England and Wales.
The delegation released its Message on 17 December
2002. It was both poignant and painful! It spoke of the despair and frustration
that have taken root in the Holy Land. It articulated the fears of many
Palestinian Christians who are being challenged day in day out by the systemic
violence of curfews, settlements, incarceration, water deprivation and land confiscation.
It spoke about the checkpoints that gaol Palestinians in their disjointed
territories and forbid them any freedom of movement on their own land.
Witnessing the pain of the ordinary people, the delegation drew a biblical
parallel. ‘Like Jesus, who experienced humiliation at his crucifixion, the
Palestinian people experience humiliation daily during the closures and
curfews. [] In the Palestinian people, Jesus still suffers at the
checkpoints.’
By the same token, the leaders of this joint delegation
also spoke out about the gruesome instances of fear, death, destruction and
mourning faced by Israeli Jews who are targeted by suicidal attacks. In the
midst of all this violent mayhem, cruelty and intransigence, the delegation
asked itself, ‘Where is the hope? Surrounded by death and destruction, how do
we as women and men Religious find new life and resurrection?’ However, the
Catholic leaders affirmed their belief that ‘peace will come only when the
injustice occupation ends and the Palestinian people can live securely in their
own nation.’ They added ‘that
Israel will not know peace and security until a Palestinian homeland is
realised.’
Whilst commending the difficult and oft-unnoticed work
of many Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers who labour in the midst of pain and
hopelessness, the delegation also voiced the profound and bitter disappointment
of the Palestinian Christian community that ‘the international voice is
virtually silent in the face of occupation, oppression and violence.’ The local
Christians spoke stridently of ‘the roaring silence’ from the West in relation
to their plight in the Holy Land.
HB Michel Sabbah, Latin-rite Catholic Patriarch of
Jerusalem, echoed with equal force the observations of the international
Catholic delegation. He appealed in his own Christmas Message 2002 to ‘all
persons of good will, to the international community, and to all our Churches
over the world, to wake up and to come and help both peoples of this land to
make peace, based on justice, equality and dignity.’ He also threw down the
gauntlet to the Palestinian as well as Israeli leaders of this vengeful and
unjust land of ancient prophets. Expressing understandable impatience with the
current political leadership on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides, he
appealed to the parties to make peace by stopping injustice. He also asked for
an end to Israeli occupation, which he described as the source of all evils and
all obstacles.
The prophecy of Isaiah (Is 9:6) was fulfilled this
week with the birth of the Prince of Peace in Bethlehem. Will his birth
introduce peace into the hearts and minds of the men and women of the Holy
Land? Will it stop some of the injustices and indignities, or will his human
birth be another divine plea that goes unnoticed by the arrogance of the mighty
and powerful?
Blessed and Happy Christmas! And Glory to God in the
highest and peace to people of good will!!
© harry-bvH
@ 27 December 2002