Editorial

The Gift of Christmas is peace, something greatly needed in these times

Peace refers to “living in harmony” or “a good relationship between persons or between groups.” Peace means being free of violence, conflict or crises or the absence of war and hostilities. Peace is different from prosperity, wealth and riches.

In matters of social or economic welfare, it means the establishment of equality, and a working political order that serves the true interests of all.

In Hebrew, the term for peace, which is commonly used for greeting, is  ”Shalom.” The root of the word means basically “to restore.” Shalom has a cognate within the Arabic language, “Salaam,” which not only refers to peace, but also includes justice, good health, safety, well-being, prosperity, security and friendliness, among others.

This concept can apply to relationships both on the personal level and between groups or nations.

The opposite of peace is violence, crisis, war, disharmony, agitation and hate.

When violence happens, it disturbs or disrupts peace. That violence will either continue or decline, depending on how we respond.

In these times, there are many acts of violence and threats of violence around the world from the family level up to the global level.  These continue to cause fear and confuse us, preventing us from listening and often leading us to judge others.

Being able to listen, to carefully listen to the other, to lend a hand to help and to forgive are the keys for peace.

Opening up one’s heart to listen and to forgive will lead to forgiveness and to a change of heart.  Such actions always have healing powers for wounds that have been caused by violence and crises.

Christmas is a gift that was the result of a change of the heart by God.  It has led to forgiveness and the restoration of relationship between humanity and God.

In this time of violence, everyone longs for peace. We are coming to the time of the year when we celebrate Christmas and the holiday season.

For Christians, peace is central for Christmas, just as it is for Thanksgiving. We just celebrated the day of Thanksgiving, when families come together to say thank you.

In this month, families come together to celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus as a time of Peace on Earth.

It is the greatest gift that anyone should have. Christmas is the time of the year when people receive and share gifts with each other.

Big stores and companies always take advantage of that spirit to sell products and in a way have hijacked the true meaning of Christmas.  They have secularized the message of faith to the point that much of that message of peace becomes lost in the process.

Families and friends look forward to the season of exchanging gifts—gifts given and shared in love and with kind hearts.

 In Luke 2:14, we return to the night of Christ’s birth, the angels sing to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE among those with whom he is pleased.”

Peace, for Christians, has to do with the Peace of Christ and with the gift of Peace at Christmas. We always look forward to that time of the year.

As we are coming into the season of gift exchanges, we do not need to give up hope, for we all know that hope will always overcome fear.

We remember that love will always be stronger than hate, forgiveness will always be stronger than revenge. In this season, may we all acknowledge that the greatest gift of Christmas and of this holy season is PEACE.

Ikani Fakasiieiki

Contributing Editor



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