Christmas: Marking an Event that Refuses to Abandon Hope

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent.  It signals the time of year when Christians worldwide prepare to commemorate the birth of Jesus, a child who would grow into an adult whose beliefs and teachings transformed the Roman world and, eventually, the face of Western Civilization. 
 

He is the wellspring of a religion comprising just under 2.2 billion  adherents across the globe.

Although Christianity is in a state of decline in many parts of Europe and faces incipient hostility and ridicule in America, it is holding its own and continues to expand, particularly in nations south of the Equator and in Asia.

 

 However, those gains do not come without a heavy price; they never have.  Christianity persists in the face of a virulent form of persecution across the globe that remains largely ignored by the governments of Europe and North America.
 
In 2012, Christmas will dawn at a time when The Middle East and sections of Africa are in a state of sectarian turmoil and war . . . never-ending war.
 
Conflicts in that part of the world have decimated Christian minorities by the hundreds of thousands in countries like Iraq and now, it appears, in Egypt, where Christians (10% of its population) have been prohibited from participating in a committee drafting a new constitution.
 
I leave you with a few thoughts culled from a dusty old volume rescued from the shelves of a second-hand bookstore:

 

·         There can be no assured peace and tranquility for any one nation except as it is achieved for all.  Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

 

·         More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.  Franklin D. Roosevelt.

 

·         Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul.  François Fénelon.

 

·         God knows how much I love peace.  But I hope I shall never be such a coward as to mistake oppression for peace.  Lajos Kossuth

Dec. 04, 2012, Please note:  I have corrected the total number of worldwide Christians according to data reported as of 2010, sourced from the Pew Research Center.