"We are all brothers and sisters."
In his traditional Christmas message, Pope Francis pleads for mutual understanding and harmony in the face of differences. He appeals for fraternity that Christ has bestowed on humanity. There may be differences of ideas, yet people are capable of listening and respecting others who may be different. This is the fraternity that Christ is offering the world, the Pope said during the “Urbi et Orbi,” or “to the city and the world” message he delivered from the Vatican. Without fraternity, he continues, our best plans and projects risk being soulless and empty. He seeks fraternity among individuals of every nation and culture. Fraternity among people with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and listening to one another. Fraternity among persons of different religions. Jesus came to reveal the face of God to all those who seek him. That Christ was born for us of the Virgin Mary tells us that we are all brothers and sisters.
Francis explains the connection of Christ’s coming into this world and men’s differences, saying: The face of God has been revealed in a human face. It did not appear in an angel, but in one man, born in a specific time and place. By his incarnation, the Son of God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity!
For him, our differences are not a detriment or a danger; but a source of richness. It is sad that in this day and age, men look at these differences as a threat and a source of conflict. Men all over the world gravitate towards their own kind while rejecting others considered “different.” Men do not see eye to eye just because they do not have the same color of skin, do not profess the same beliefs, and do not share the same way of seeing things around them. But these differences are not enough reason to be at one another’s throat. The Pope see these differences much like an artist who is about to make a mosaic, it is better to have tiles of many colors available, rather than just a few! The experience of families teaches us this: As brothers and sisters, we are all different from each other. We do not always agree, but there is an unbreakable bond uniting us, and the love of our parents helps us to love one another, he adds.
He makes his appeal for fraternity and unity as the trend toward nationalism, which is fueling suspicion on migrants and refugees, has gained traction in much of Europe and the United States. Francis urges the international community to “work decisively for a political solution that can put aside divisions and partisan interests, so that the Syrian people, especially all those who were forced to leave their own lands and seek refuge elsewhere, can return to live in peace in their own country.”
Indeed, intolerance and hostility toward “others” has become the norm in most parts of the world. This sense of hostility is aggravated by massive migration of peoples who have been displaced by internal conflicts in their own countries. We are seeing this phenomenon in Syria, Iraq and most other conflict areas in the world where people are now seeking refuge often in European and other Western countries, prompting these affected countries to clamp down on their borders because they see these refugees as a threat to their stability. In the United States, anti-immigration policies have been adopted by the Trump administration to stop the so-called illegal immigration which track has given rise to a myriad of legal, moral, economic, security, and humanitarian concerns.
These differences, particularly religious differences, is also fomenting intolerance and persecution of religious groups all over the world. Clashes between Christians against Muslims, Christians against other Christian minority sects, and Muslims against other Muslims groups are now so common. “Discrimination based upon religion or conviction exists in almost all economic, social, and ideological systems and in all parts of the world,” noted Angelo d’Almeida Ribeiro, former Special Rapporteur appointed by the UN Commission on Human Rights. In their book Freedom of Religion and Belief—A World Report, published in 1997, editors Kevin Boyle and Juliet Sheen state: “Religious persecution of minority faiths [and] the proscribing of beliefs and pervasive discrimination… “are daily occurrences at the end of the twentieth century.”
Because man’s bigotry and prejudice toward others often get the better of him, we conveniently forget the basic human rights principle enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the right of everyone to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Addressing this problem in 2017, Pope Francis reminded a group of religious leaders on their obligation to denounce violations of human dignity and human rights, to expose attempts to justify every form of hatred in the name of religion, and to condemn these attempts as idolatrous caricatures of God.”
In this year’s traditional Christmas message, Francis gives us a sobering reminder to see the richness in God’s gift of diversity as an opportunity for unity and by our humanity. In Pope Francis’ words, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.
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