My Christmas worries

Every year when Christmas comes around I think of what a wonderful time it is, how much hope that event some 2,000 years ago still insipires even in those who are not familiar with the Biblical details.

Related to that hope, however, is the anxiety I have for all those Christians who live in countries in which going to Holy Mass on for Christmas entails a very real possibility that they will not make it back, either being attacked on their way to church or even during Holy Mass. Primarily this happens in Muslim countries or in countries where there is a militant Islamist presence.

It seems that in between militant atheists in the West, and militant Islamists outside the West, there is no place for Christians to live and worship freely, paying homage in everything they do. I often think back to Pope Benedict XVI's "Spirit of the Liturgy", in which he writes that the Israelites had to flee Egypt so they could worship God in the proper way. Often it feels as though we need a new Exodus. But where to? All the avenues seem closed, and formerly Christian lands seem oftentimes to be even more violently opposed to true worship than Islamic lands.

Then it occurs to me that Christianity has always been an uphill battle, not a religion for the fainthearted. In between Herod at the beginning of Jesus' life and the Sanhedrin at the end of it, people have been trying to snuff out the light of Christ and where they did not succeed in putting it out at its inception, they continued to try and snuff it out through persecuting His disciples. Even those who recognised that Christ was innocent, as did Pontius Pilate, still could not get themselves to defend Christ and rather had him tortured to pacify the crowds. So it often feels of people who claim to be 'friendly' to Christianity, even unfortunately, amongst our very own shepherds. Well, we are still here and we shall still be here until Christ comes back in glory.

Still, at this time of year, I cannot help but say a heartfelt prayer for those Christians who know full well that the very act of worship is often inseparable from the cross of martyrdom. For sure there are other issues of gravity in the Church, but at this time of year, those persecuted Christians deserve as much of our admiration and goodwill as we can muster.