Let us Dream of a better world this Christmas
Although we are all preparing for a Christmas like no other, some things don’t change. The story of the baby Jesus, Mary his mother, Joseph her husband, angels, visiting shepherds and three kings are still the core material in this drama. But Christmas carol services also tell other stories from the Bible. The one that strikes me most powerfully right now is about the fundamentals of human life, going back to the very beginning.
In this story Adam and Eve leave the
Garden of Eden and embark on the life as we know it. Here are its basic elements: tears and sorrow, the company of each other, clothing and social dignity, work and ingenuity, the children, rivalry and conflict, and death.
It’s a pretty bleak picture and it sums up the life experience of what is overwhelmingly the larger part of the earth’s population. The COVID pandemic has reinforced the themes of sorrow and death. Brexit calls into question the international dimension of our social dignity, the economic effect of our work, and our children’s future prospects.
Against this backdrop, Pope Francis has published a very personal statement of hope for the future. Of course, it comes from a deeply held Christian faith, but its very title, Let us Dream, tells us that his hope is for all humanity.
We can all dream of a better world, a different way of being more fully ourselves, and how to be happy and free from fear. But it is only by living in cooperation with other people that these dreams can become reality.
That is the essential truth that Adam and Eve have to learn as they leave the Garden of Eden. The temptation is to turn in on themselves and go it alone. But hope, joy and beauty are discovered when we look beyond ourselves and learn to care for the stranger in our midst and for the earth as entrusted to us by God, our creator.
The Christ child draws local shepherds and international scholar kings to the manger. They are inspired by the dream of a new social contract with the strapline: “Peace on earth”. This is still God’s Christmas present to us all.