
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who herald peace and happiness,
who proclaim salvation.
…
Break into shouts of joy together,
all you ruins of Jerusalem!
For the Lord has consoled his people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem. (Is 52, 7-9)
Christmas 2024
Dear companions in the Lord,
Who among us does not long for the messengers of joy who bring the news of peace and salvation! Messengers of joy who, in the midst of disaster and destruction, make us feel that the ruins do not have the last word, that they do not have the power to prevent a new beginning, that they do not have the power to extinguish God’s saving work.
We all long for this message and many more traces of its realisation in the midst of constant escalation of conflicts, terror and wars, and surely the longing – often seemingly unheard – sometimes leads to the probing question of why God allows all this to happen.
Perhaps we are like the Israelites in exile – they struggled, doubted, grumbled, but they did not give up on God. They complained to him about their suffering and were heard – not in the grand sweep of an “all-round solution”, but with many gestures of devotion, rescue from precarious situations, with the strength to go on, to believe and hope – their journey through the deprived desert in all its arduousness became a story of salvation.
During the weeks of Advent, we have once again increasingly felt this longing for salvation and redemption, painfully in view of our global and certainly often also our personal reality, but nevertheless caught up in the deep knowledge that God has brought salvation in the incarnation of Jesus, and that this unrivalled salvation is promised to us anew and urgently on this Christmas.
When the angel calls out to the shepherds in Bethlehem, “Do not be afraid, I proclaim to you great joy” (Luke 2:10), this is not a message that ignores suffering. It is a message that leads us into a deeper dimension of a power of love and hope that has been given a face in the Incarnation. It is a message that tells us that the ruins, in all their horror, do not have the power to prevent a new beginning, even if it may seem to take superhuman effort and push us to our limits.
What applies to our global reality also applies to our personal lives and our interpersonal relationships. It applies to what is vulnerable in our communities, in our provinces and regions, in the whole CJ.
Let us take the messenger of joy seriously and open ourselves to his message. God becomes man. He not only comforts, He brings new life, He redeems and He sends us to bear witness to the traces of His healing work through our being and actions, so that incarnation happens where people are comforted and can draw new hope.
Let us open ourselves to the “messengers of joy” and become “them” ourselves!
I sincerely wish you all a joy filled and blessed Christmas!
With my love and prayers
Sr Veronica Fuhrmann CJ