Hope and Joy

Richard A. Sokerka

The wait is almost over. Christmas Day, the birth of Our Savior, is just a few days away.

Yet, as this day of glorious Good News approaches with its message of “peace on earth, good will to men,” so much of the news we read is doom and gloom.

How can we do something about all this troubling news around us?

According to Pope Francis, the hope that the Child Jesus brings at Christmas should fill our hearts and allow us to be his messengers to the world — a world that is thirsting for goodness.

“The message of the Good News entrusted to us is urgent,” he said. “We must run like the messenger of the mountains because the world cannot wait, humanity is hungry and thirsty for justice, for truth and for peace.”

Focusing on a passage from the Book of Isaiah recounting how the messenger was “announcing peace” and “bringing good news,” the Pope said that we are also urged “to wake up, like Jerusalem.”

“We are called to become men and women of hope, collaborating in the coming of this kingdom.”

The most beautiful of all the Christmas joys is that of inner peace, the knowledge that “the Lord has blotted out my sins, the Lord has forgiven me, the Lord has had mercy on me, he came to my rescue,” Pope Francis said. “This is the joy of Christmas!”

In light of all that is wrong in the world, we are called to remember God’s promise to us, namely, that he would never abandon his people or let them be defeated by evil, he said.

This Christmas let us all be messengers of hope and joy to all.

Merry Christmas!