Of all the Christmas traditions, many of them very beautiful, I like best the proclamation of Christmas peace. I once read that in the Middle Ages, at the beginning of Advent, people renounced war and violence so that everyone could have peaceful Christmas celebrations.
Of course it would have been even better to renounce war altogether, at all times, not just at Christmas, but people are people, and when they try to achieve too much too quickly, the reality is that nothing really changes.
People with a more realistic hope agreed on a more modest goal. It is known that during the First World War, on Christmas nights, soldiers of opposing forces gathered and celebrated the Nativity of Jesus together. Imagine that today soldiers from two fronts gathered and began to sing Christmas carols together. It seems that the soldiers’ superiors did not like that at all, but in hindsight it is clear that it was the wisest and most humane decision. Today peace is spoken of all the time, but it seems that we are not able to agree even on a limited and temporary solution, such as the Christmas truce.
But everything actually depends on us ourselves. A couple of days ago, on 19 December, I happened to come across a sentence that Pope Leo XIV recently shared on social media: «Before the holy Christmas Eve, find someone with whom to make peace. It is a more precious gift than any purchasable present, because peace is a gift found only in the heart.» I would like to share this thought with you in more detail today.
Before the start of the holidays, we would all like to do something good that would make the lives of our loved ones more joyful and happier. In an ideal world we would reconcile with everyone, do it all at once and wake up on December 25th as a new person. But on Christmas morning we wake up the same person we’ve always been, and we will probably think to ourselves that we meant well, but it turned out as always. In the real world we are always the same person. And therefore it is more realistic and useful to set ourselves goals that are like a Christmas truce: more modest but concrete.
I remember a moment from my childhood when I watched a French action film whose most famous line was what an experienced police chief told a young detective: «A running idiot always moves faster than a seated pundit.» Such a principle is of course highly questionable, but we could indeed set ourselves even such a simple and concrete goal: to find one person to reconcile with now at Christmas. Each of us probably has more than one person we should make peace with.
But let’s simply try, because small steps are the most effective, not just pontificating: let’s find one person to call or to send a letter to instead of a long awkward silence; one person to reconcile with or simply to say something to. If each of us found one such person, Christmas peace would not be only a nice speech on the town hall square of Tallinna or Tartu: it would be a beautiful gift we all give to everyone, the dearest gift that can only be bought in one’s own heart.
Bishop Philippe Jourdan (article published on 24.12.2024 in Postimees
Source and full text available at:PHILIPPE JOURDAN ⟩ It would be more useful for us to set goals that are like a Christmas truce