A stable message
The birth of Christ ushers a promise of peace for the world. In the fullest teaching of the Bible, peace is the ethos of stable, just and reconciled relationships among all living beings. Peace happens here and now in history, and remains a paradox. It is a gift of God enhanced by human endeavour.
The entry of wise persons from other religious cultures, demonstrate goodwill at the birth of a Jewish baby. Their presence endorses cross-cultural harmony as a distinct impetus in this pilgrimage towards peace.
The inclusion of poverty-stricken shepherds, longing for relief from their daily burdens, points to the inescapable agenda of economic justice. Disregard for this obligation hinders this same pilgrimage.
Two things we lack
Our recent awakening to democratic values and governance is commendable. It is nevertheless lacking in cross-cultural collaboration and the demand for economic justice for the poor.
Our protests and interventions for stability have skirted the religious collective. We do not seem to understand how vicious a weapon religion can become when distorted to serve narrow sectarian agendas. The crucial investment in inter-religious goodwill and trust has been neglected for too long. While some recent interventions from the religions spoke truth with courage, they were constrained to do so alone. Others stood behind party lines to feed animosity and division.
Many who worked for political stability downplayed the priority of real, visible, economic justice for the poor, measurable by the poor. Few took up the cry of the plantation workers for a higher, yet far from livable wage. Several did voice concerns over economic setbacks, but in a terminology few understand. Investments, markets and profits are about moving wealth in one direction. Eventually, the wealth gap widens even more. Eventually the poor are excluded from both, conversations and food at the table.
Truth from the sidelines
People’s movements that sideline cross-cultural trust and visible economic justice for the poor have a short lifespan. They are to turn to these responsibilities if they wish to remain movements. Cross-cultural trust and the poor endowed with justice have a momentum of their own. They add energy, cohesion and credibility to our aspirations for political and social integrity.
This message of Christmas is all the more urgent now. The reconstruction of legitimate political alliances between independent parties is once again leading to divisive and dangerous spurts of racism. And the brash endorsement of an unregulated free market economy, threatens to drown the poorest in our national family in an ocean of bondage.
Stable Community
Regardless of whatever else happens, it is when the best in our religious cultures overcome their differences and suspicions and come together to declare truth and work for the common good that the movement towards stable community lies within reach.
But this alone will not do. It is also only when we move the challenge of economic justice for the poor, cleverly hidden at the periphery, to the centre, that we will lay a truly democratic foundation. As long as poverty exists and is ignored, and societies stretch between the extremes of rich and poor, there can never be a truly just, stable and democratic society.
Kairos now
The first Christmas is considered one of the best examples of a Greek word ‘Kairos’. In a nutshell, Kairosis the much longed for intervention that brings fresh energy for a higher quality of life. For those who long for stable community, the real flowering of inter-religious collaboration and visible economic justice for the poor, create the conditions for a repeat of Kairos.
With peace and blessings to all.
