In Bethlehem, the light of Christmas shines again, looking to Gaza
After two years of darkness, the city where Jesus was born lit up once again for Christmas. During Midnight Mass, Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa reinterpreted the Gospel in light of the wounds of the Holy Land, in particular Gaza. He also highlighted the "great and real”" responsibility of bringing God's peace to the world. “Christmas does not distance us from history but profoundly engages”, the cardinal said.
Bethlehem (AsiaNews) – After two years of darkness and silence due to the war, Christmas lights have returned to Bethlehem.
In Manger Square, the air was filled with a mix of scents and tongues. Stalls stayed open until late into the night selling cotton candy, hot knafeh, and qatayef (typical Palestinian sweets), amid the laughter of young people, and families with children. Many Muslims joined the crowd, to share the celebration with the city's Christians.
For the first time in two years, pilgrims were back. Organised groups from Asia (for example, the Philippines) and individual believers wore red Christmas hats, took pictures, and exchanged greetings in every language.
It is not yet mass tourism (80 per cent of Bethlehem's economy relies on this sector), but some hotels did reopen. A fragile and moving hope stirs residents.
Several pilgrims attended Midnight Mass in the Church of St Catherine, which was packed like never before.
Palestinian scouts, who marched through Bethlehem during the Christmas Eve procession, welcomed the faithful into the church.
Alongside the men and women religious who live in the Holy Land, foreign diplomats, representatives of the Palestinian Authority (but not President Mahmoud Abbas who was absent for health reasons), and delegations from the Kingdom of Jordan were present, whom Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa thanked in particular for their support in delivering aid to the Gaza Strip.
In his homily on Christmas night, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem started with the Gospel text, citing the opening of the passage from Luke (2.1): “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole world.”
The situation from the past still speaks to us today. “Luke places the birth of Jesus within the broader history of the world, marked by political decisions, balances of power, and logic that seems to govern the course of events.
“As then, history today is marked by decrees, political decisions, balances of power that often seem to determine the destiny of peoples. The Holy Land bears witness to this: the choices of the powerful have concrete consequences on the lives of millions of people.”
This is no minor detail. “Luke the evangelist, tells us that God is not afraid of human history, even when it appears confused, marked by injustice, violence and domination. God does not create a parallel history. He does not enter the world when everything is finally ordered and pacified. He enters real, concrete, sometimes harsh history and makes it His own from within.”
The cardinal stressed this point, citing the current situation in the Holy Land.
“This is one of the great announcements of Christmas: God does not wait for history to get better before He enters it. He enters while history is what it is. Thus, He teaches us that no time is definitively lost and no situation is too dark for God to dwell in.”
Luke's story highlights the logic of power that distinguishes the logic of men from that of God, Pizzaballa said.
“[O]n the one hand the emperor who rules the peoples, on the other a child who is born without power. The empire issues decrees, but God gives a Son. While history follows the logic of force, God acts discreetly and fulfills His promises through ordinary events.”
“This contrast,” the patriarch explained, “is not only to move us, but to convert us. This contrast reveals to us the way in which God chooses to be present in the world and, consequently, the way in which we too are called to remain in history.
“Christmas is not a spiritual shelter that removes us from the strain of the present time,” it “is a school of responsibility. It teaches us that the fullness of time is not an ideal condition to wait for, but a reality to welcome. It is Christ Himself who imbues time with fullness. He does not wait for circumstances to be favorable: He inhabits and transfigures them.
Once again, it is in the light of the Gospel that we must read the experience that the Holy Land is going through at present, where the first phase of a fragile ceasefire came into force on 10 October.
“The peace announced by the angels is to be understood in this light. It is not a mere equilibrium or the result of fragile agreements. It is the fruit of God’s presence in history. It is a peace that comes from above but does not impose itself. It is given but is also entrusted.
“God plays His part to the end: He enters history, becomes a Child and shares in our condition. He does not replace man’s freedom. Peace becomes real only if it finds hearts willing to welcome it and hands ready to keep it safe.”
This is “a great and real responsibility” that God gave to men and women. “Every gesture of reconciliation, every word that does not fuel hatred, every choice that centers on the dignity of the other, becomes the place where God’s peace takes flesh. Christmas does not distance us from history but profoundly engages so that we are not neutral, but partakers.”
Across the Holy Land, such words have a real impact.
“To celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem is to recognize that God has chosen a real land marked by wounds and expectations. The holiness of the places coexists with wounds that are still open. We come from years of great hardship, in which war, violence, hunger and destruction have deeply marked the lives of so many, especially the little ones.
“The situation has become too heavy, relationships too conflicting. Starting over and rebuilding has become too hard. In these years, history has shown all its contradictions, reality has come to us with its heavy, complicated and sad side.”
If this land, “a crossroads of peoples and faiths, continues to be the scene of tensions and conflicts,” it is also “the responsibility of local leaders, the international community, but also religious and moral authorities.”
Pizzaballa explicitly referred to the situation in Gaza, speaking about his recent visit.
“[D]espite the cessation of the war, suffering is still present in Gaza, families live in the rubble, and the future appears fragile and uncertain.”
This place, he underlined, cannot be erased even on Christmas Day, because it is precisely here that the mystery of the incarnation continues to take shape.
Meeting Gazans, “I was struck by their strength and desire to start over, their ability to rejoice again, their determination to rebuild devastated lives from scratch.”
The patriarch focused on the children, who can be the bearers of unexpected hope.
“Children are wonderful. Children are always wonderful. But there I see children who, despite everything, with nothing, in the middle of nowhere, are capable of rejoicing, of hugging each other, of smiling. I think they are the ones who give others the strength to move forward."
The people of Gaza remind “us how we too are called to stand within our own history. They challenge us to strongly ask for itineraries of justice and reconciliation, which heed the cry of the poor, so that peace may not only be a dream, but a concrete commitment and responsibility for all.”
Despite Christ’s coming, “history does not change overnight,” stressed the patriarch. “Yet, it can change direction when men and women allow themselves to be enlightened by a light greater than themselves.
“Tonight’s Gospel also challenges us here present from different countries, cultures and histories. It asks us not to remain neutral. To not run away from the complexity of the present, but to navigate it in the light of the Child.
“The world’s night may be deep, but it is not definitive. The light of Bethlehem does not blind us; rather it lights the way. It spreads from heart to heart, through humble gestures, reconciled words, daily choices of peace made by men and women who allow the Gospel to take flesh in their lives.”
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