SYMBOL OF A BETTER LIFE

FAITH is tested over and again.

As Australians stood in stunned shock this week, watching reports of carnage in the heart of Melbourne after a crazed driver targeted innocent men, women and children, the temptation to hate the perpetrator and to question the existence of a rational creator was strong.

Faith has also been tested many times over in recent years as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, which wrapped up this month, shone a light in dark corners, exposing a magnitude of evil that demands a strong response from governments and churches.

We live in challenging times. Political leaders demonstrate through their actions and inactions, through questionable allegiances and their own stupidity – exposed through social media – that quality of character is often lacking.

Veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church once lamented how the scepticism of a sceptical age had destroyed people’s beliefs. Church was writing for The New York Sun back in 1897, but his words in that editorial – in response to a small child’s wish to know whether Santa Claus existed – are just as relevant today. In a world plagued by terrorism, fraud, domestic violence and drugs, where news columns are filled with death and conflict, it is easy to believe there are no answers.

But Church’s words back then offered hope. “Yes Virginia,’’ he told eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, “there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist...’’

Christmas by itself this year will not resolve heartache across the globe or work an instant miracle for the victims of that Melbourne idiot. But like the wonderful birth it celebrates, Christmas does offer a new beginning. It is the symbol of how life should be. But we have to work for it.

A better life for all, free of hatreds and full of hope, is not delivered on a plate. Hearts must be opened. Then the dream of loving and being loved can be realised.