Vicar Apolostic of Arabia Bishop Paul Hinder Wishes Readers on Christmas

Daijiworld Media Network - Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi, Dec 24: Bishop Paul Hinder OFM Cap Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia from his Abu Dhabi office conveyed the following Christmas message exclusively for Daijiworld Readers while speaking to Stan Ageira, Daijiworld’s head for Middle East Office:

Dear Dajiworld Readers,

"Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." These words of the angel of the Lord to the shepherds in Luke’s gospel (2:10) are not referring to the past but addressed to you and to me today. The angel spoke into a world where poverty, injustice, violence, sickness and death were daily present. Has anything changed since then? Are we not despite all the technical and scientific progress suffering the same problems? 

I had the chance to visit the Missionaries of Charity working in Yemen during the time of Advent 2011. To see the sisters working among the poorest of the poor with that charming smile of love when you can hear the guns and shells nearby revealed me the powerful message of the angel into a broken world: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” not only for a few. And here is also the reason: “For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord” (Luke 2:11). The saviour does not appear as warrior to clean the world with power and might. No, he came among us as a disarmed child – and he remained disarmed until he stretched out his arms on the cross to embrace the whole world in a divine act of love.

The “humility of God” - an expression of saint Francis of Assisi - goes so far that saint Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians dares to say: “For our sake (God) made (Jesus) to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21).  Dear friends, the basic conditions of the world and our daily life may still be the same like at the times of Jesus’ birth. What should have changed in the meantime is the heart of those who listen carefully to the message of the angel and believe in it: “Do not be afraid – a saviour has been born for you.”

Don’t you think that the world around you would become a little bit better and brighter if you acted with a heart that is really touched by the divine love in the crib who seems to tell me only this: “Look at me, although I am the Son of God I became weak among you; take care of me in each one who has a human face like mine!”

I wish you and your families a Christmas in peace and joy. “Do not be afraid ... a saviour has been born for you!”