The foremost crises of our times were reflected in sober Christmas messages from prominent leaders of the Christian world. Queen Elizabeth II hoped light would triumph over darkness after a difficult terrorism-ridden year that also triggered a migrants’ crisis, while the Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of 85 million Anglicans, was blunter, saying Christianity faced a virtual wipeout in the Middle East, where it began two millennia ago. Referring to Islamic State as “a Herod of today”, a reference to the Biblical king at the time of Jesus’ birth, Justine Welby berated it for igniting a trail of violence and hate. Celebrations in Paris were subdued after November’s tragic events.
Pope Francis, in his Christmas Eve mass, told his global flock of 1.2 billion Catholics to sober down and give up their obsession with “consumerism and hedonism, wealth and extravagance”. In a world where there are people who are ready to take on credit card debt in order to have a good time over Christmas, the Pope’s message is not so much a wet blanket as a stark reminder of the suffering of millions from the fundamental phenomenon of poverty created by unequal distribution of the planet’s wealth. Quite apart from people who were hit by terrorism, there are also those stricken by the fury of nature, as citizens of Chennai were quite recently. There too, the festival was somewhat muted, but there is no denying the cheer that Christmas brings though it comes only once a year.
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