SACBC Christmas Message to the Faithful
A much-needed season of hope for peace.
One of the major themes associated with Christmas is peace captured in the song of the angels on the occasion of the birth of Jesus: “Glory to God in the heavenly heights, and peace among all people on earth (cf. Lk.2:14-20).
Yet, as we enter this season of peace, the reality of our situation in the world, at the national and personal levels, is characterised by a lack of peace with varying degrees, with some situations being worse than others. To talk meaningfully about this season of peace, we must be upfront in naming our unpeaceful situations.
- Absence of Peace in the Holy Land
The worst situation that confronts us daily is the images of the destruction from the war in Gaza beamed on our television for almost two months now. From these images, we see a portion of Palestine country, with a concentrated population of close to two million people, being reduced into a rabble by bombs. The consequence of this bombardment is the displacement of over a million people, with thousands of them dying from bomb explosions.
Even more disturbing are the reports that in this war, every ten minutes, a child dies, to say nothing about the number of those injured, those separated from their families, and those who remain orphans. The people who get killed in Gaza are not only Palestinians but also journalists, humanitarian aid workers, kidnapped Israeli citizens, and soldiers. At this present moment, Gaza is described by many as the worst place to live on earth.
What has not been shown on television is what sparked off this war, namely the atrocious murder of innocent Israeli citizens by a small group of people called Hamas, claiming to be fighting for the liberation of Palestine. It is with this group that Israel is fighting, but its indiscriminate attack of homes, hospitals, schools, and even refugee camps is resulting in the death of thousands of innocent civilians.
- Lack of Peace in the World
The situation of war in the Holy Land is receiving comprehensive media coverage, contributing to knowledge and sympathy about what is going on there. Not so forefront in our consciousness are similar situations that are occurring in the African continent and elsewhere because they are not so well covered by the media, but they are there. These areas include Sudan, DRC, Burkina Faso, Tigray, Mozambique, and Ukraine.
- Lack of Peace in our Country
As the saying goes, “Peace is not the absence of war”. Therefore, those of us spared from the shuttering sounds of bomb explosions and constant crack of gunfire are not necessarily at peace. Just being able to manage to live, put food on the table, and wake up to face another day is not enough to feel at peace.
Being forced to accept that services for basic needs and opportunities for self-development are an exception rather than a rule of life does not make for feeling peaceful. Observing that those in leadership use the platform to enrich themselves and those close to them engenders anger and frustration rather than peace.
Observing how our country, which was once promising to be a model of prosperity in the African continent, is now fast living up to the doom prophecy of being “like the rest of African countries” makes your heart sink rather than rejoice in peace.
The lack of ethical leadership at top levels and mismanagement of the country has provided space for the mentality and spirit of selfishness, bullying, lawlessness, disorder, violence, criminality, and lack of respect to reign, resulting in a collapse of peace among citizens. With gender-based violence, women and girls are not at peace at home, on the streets, at school, at work, and unfortunately, in the church as well sometimes.
Taxi drivers bully everybody in the streets. Drug pushing is resulting in painful conflict between addicted children and parents and between society and those labelled as “Maphara”. The collapsed economy, due in no small measure to corruption, has contributed to massive unemployment, robbing millions of South Africans of their human dignity while a few are obscenely wealthy. The indifference of those in leadership to complaints about the lack of essential services has resulted in a culture of violence and destruction of property as it is “the only way to be heard”.
- Lack of Peace in our close circles
More often than not, the ambience of our family, relatives, friends, colleagues, and fellow believers is often marred by discords. We are habitually unpeaceful within our close circles.
- The dictatorship of Materialism
Then there is the perennial challenge of materialism and pleasure-seeking culture, which renders people to want to live only at the physical level. This attitude of pleasure maximisation leads to a break of relationships with oneself, as “man does not live on bread alone” but also on practising values that make for a respectful and caring relationship with others and with our maker from whom we came and to whom we shall return.
- Lack of Peace between humanity and creation
Finally, as we enter the season of peace, let us remember that there is no peace between humankind and the environment or creation. Through fossil energy generation, pollution, and destructive practices of mining and farming, we are waging war with creation, and through changes in weather patterns, creation is fighting back. The bombs and guns of the war between humanity and creation are not so loud and obvious, but they are silently exploding, and future generations will bear the brunt of our present war with nature.
It is in this context of lack of peace between humanity and creation, lack of peace among nations, lack of peace between the leaders and citizens, lack of peace among citizens, lack of peace between oneself and others, lack of peace within oneself and lack of peace between oneself and God that we are invited to embrace Christ who is God among us so that we can have peace at all levels of our existence.
St. Paul invites us not only to be at peace at all levels of our existence but also to be instruments and agents of peace in the world when he says: “God reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor.5:18-19)
+SithembeleSipuka
Bishop of Mthatha and SACBC President
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