“The mercy of God the Father, the love of the Word Incarnate, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”.

         “When the right time finally came, God sent his own Son, He came as the son of a human mother……so that we might become God’s sons. To show that you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, “Father, my Father” 
             (Gal. 4, 5-6).

At Christmas we hear the Good News, “The Word become a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us.” (Jn.1, 14). It is the news about Emmanuel, “God is with us.” This year the news adds a truly new dimension: God has been with us in this form for 2000 years. We in the Sudan have experienced this presence for 100 years. We have to listen to the Angels’ song: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased.” This year that song must be sung louder. For it is not a first announcement. It is the announcement of 2000 years of God’s presence in Jesus Christ. It is the announcement of 2000 years of his presence in the Church and in some way in each one of us, because we are members of this Church.

Our own 100 years of Christ’s visible presence in this country ought to “force” each one of us to raise a resounding hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God. We thank and praise him for the special way in which he led us to “reproduce” the presence of Christ in this country. I do not refer only to the Church in the Sudan, but to each one of you who in your diversity have given to this Church an identity. You have given Christ a face by which he can be recognized.

We witnessed not only to his glory and power. We witnessed also to him as a sign of contradiction and became in him signs of contradiction ourselves. We have shown ourselves as God’s servants and fellow servants, like St Paul, with Jesus “by patiently enduring, troubles, hardships, and difficulties. We have been beaten imprisoned, and mobbed; we have been overworked, and have gone without sleep or food. By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God’s servants, - by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, by our message of truth, and by the power of God…We are honoured and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet speak the truth; as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.” (2 Cor.6: 10).- This is the contradiction of the Son of God who “became a human being, and lived among us.”

In the midst of our joy, thanksgiving and praise, we need to allow the second part of the Angels’ song resound in our country. Peace on earth was announced when the Son of God was born in poverty and in human weakness. By his birth he bas empowered the poor and the weak to be peacemakers. We cannot identify with Christ’s poor unless we truly become peacemakers. Our tools for peace are our endurance, our patience, our power to forgive, our solidarity with one another, our unity, and our trust in God’s power. For the Son of God became a human being so that human beings might become children of God.

Christmas is our birthday as children of God. May Christians recognize their dignity and new identity. May they take it as seriously as Christ took his humanity. May that seriousness help each of us break through the walls of division that have so terribly wrecked our communities and nation.

This Christmas of the Great Jubilee ought to become a turning point in our history. We have to add a new chapter to our presence in the Sudan. In that chapter we will no longer identify ourselves as Ndogo, Zande, Nuer, Dinka, Lotuho… with each one claiming for himself the right to jump at the others’ throats…but simply as “Children of God!” That means, Brothers and Sisters. Then the Angels will sing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased.” That song will be heard only when the children of God are born. Then there will be news of great joy for the whole people!

I wish you all a truly Happy Christmas.
May the Jubilee help all of us
To walk together in the way of peace.
May it be a year of life not of death.
The prince of Life is now “God with us!”