Christmas Message of Hope

I’m as much of a sentimental Christmas slush as the next guy.  However, I agree with the Book of Ecclesiastes:  there is a time and season for everything.  Since mid-November, one of my favorite radio stations has been playing non-stop Christmas music.  Now, after six weeks, I’m going to scream if I hear one more time “All I want for Christmas Is You.”  Bah, humbug! 

But there is one song I do not grow tired of:  “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”  The song is based on the poem “Christmas Bells,” written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during the time of the US Civil War. 

The fifth and sixth stanzas, in which Longfellow laments the war’s destruction, were not included in the song, but it does include the final two stanzas:

And in despair I bowed my head;

    "There is no peace on earth," I said;

        "For hate is strong,

        And mocks the song

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

    Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

    "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

        The Wrong shall fail,

        The Right prevail,

    With peace on earth, good-will to men."

If we look back on 2016, we may very much feel the sentiments of the seventh stanza, seeing so much hate in the world.  Certainly, our Lay Mission-Helpers very much live in seventh stanza situations around the world.  They witness heart-breaking events and circumstances which certainly would make any one of us repeat the words, “There is no peace on earth.” 

But the final stanza calls us to profound belief and hope:  God is alive.  God’s justice is done.  God’s love and mercy bring peace, right here, right now in this Christmas season.  Amid the cacophony of the hate and violence, the bells ring “loud and deep” for us here and abroad.  They sound out, beaconing us to live out the same love, mercy, and tenderness found in that manger scene over 2,000 years ago.  Let us pause this season and listen to their message, and then act out that message in the lives of those around us.

Thank you for your support of Lay Mission-Helpers in 2016, and let us continue to keep each other in our prayers!

Chad Ribordy

Executive Director

Lay Mission-Helpers Association