Archbishop Peter Chong’s Christmas Message
Poor Christmas
The Jewish Story
Easter is the Christian festival that brings together Jesus’ life, suffering, death, resurrection. Christianity began with the disciples’ experience of Jesus. The disciples experienced peace, shalom, the fullness of life and therefore gave him the title ‘Christ.’ Christmas festival was later included as the gospel writers, particularly Mathew and Luke tried to include other relevant events in Jesus’ life.
The Jewish history is one that is marked by suffering, oppression, deportation. Ever since Israel was exiled in Babylon (587BC), Jews were attacked, conquered, and oppressed. Israel is a ‘landscape of cries.’ Israel experienced brokenness, vulnerability, and the danger of being reduced to nothing – to non-being.
But something happened that changed everything; that reset life of the nation – Jesus the Christ. Jesus gave meaning, purpose, gave a mission to his disciples; from non-being to being. Jesus’ disciples were filled with a mission to ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.’ This mission gave birth to the largest religion in the world, namely Christianity.
Our Story
The whole world today faces the danger of self-destruction, the destruction of our Mother Earth, Our Common Home. But here in Fiji, even before climate change destroys us, we are destroying our environment, our land, rivers, oceans and our own people. Extractive and logging businesses are causing death to many living creatures, depriving food to rural communities, clean river water for washing & bathing; carrying out unsustainable development. We are destroying ourselves, our environment. Extractive and logging companies rob us of life.
Covid 19 has added to our peoples’ suffering and poverty. COVID-19 in Fiji more about the loss of income, money, and food. For many this year will be a poor Christmas. Tourist workers have lost jobs. Small businesses have been affected. Economists tell us that the worst is yet to come. Moreover, Fiji’s foreign debt will bring more poverty. And then we have our latest catastrophe, TC Yasa.
Like the Israelites, we need Christ, the Messiah, the Annointed of God to reset our lives and keep the balance in the earth’s ecosystem. We need Jesus Christ to reset our lives. We need to the teachings of Jesus; of love, justice, truth, honesty, peace, human dignity, freedom, and care for creation.
Our government needs Jesus. Our traditional chiefs need Jesus. Our politicians need Jesus. The industries need Jesus. Fiji and the whole world need Jesus to be born again in our lives.
What Fiji needs is, not values of the secular world; but the values preached by the world’s religions, values that come from divine truths.
I pray that Christmas will be a graced time to reset our lives according to God’s plan.
+ Archbishop Peter Chong
