By JODY BENSON
Los Alamos
Christmas celebrates new birth that brings the hope of life renewed. Each of us is born to bring our own individual gifts to a world that, without every single us, is incomplete. In the Christian tradition, Jesus represents that helpless, marginalized infant whose survival depends on his family and the grace and generosity of a community of strangers. He is also the one who, for Christians, is the promised Prince of Peace, and thus the model for how God relates to us and how we should relate to everyone else.
Bethlehem, a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank of Israel, is cancelling Christmas this year. The town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born must cancel the celebration because of the Israeli government’s war on Gaza. No joy. No peace. And the lights in the heavens are not angels declaring the Glory of God, but missiles and explosions declaring the fear and loathing of man against man.
Still, we hope for peace. All Abrahamic traditions promise that one day Peace will come on condition that we, the humans, make a place for it. In this Peace, we the humans are responsible for caring for the babies, the children, each one-another, so every gift of every one becomes completed to usher in the longed-for world which is to come.
It’s up to us to work toward Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Every Human. We can start with treating one another as if the other is the messiah we await.
And we can communicate our prayer for peace to those in charge of funding the war that denies Christmas. We can write our national delegation and even governor to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to let the children live. Let everybody be able to have the new life of the Christmas promise.
You can find phone numbers (local and national) and email contacts here:
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez: https://fernandez.house.gov/contact
Senator Ben Ray Lujan: https://www.lujan.senate.gov/contact/
Senator Martin Heinrich: https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/contact
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham: https://www.governor.state.nm.us/contact-the-governor/
Since for Christians, Christmas celebrates the redemptive power of each child born unto us, here’s a song from children of the Ramallah Friends School:
https://worldbeyondwar.org/children-from-ramallah-friends-school-sing-a-song-to-the-world