Keeping Christ in Christmas

On Saturday December 12, I walked ten miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) with about 135 other people in the 56^th Annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage. I’m not certain when I started participating in this yearly walk, but I’ve been doing it at least since 2002 (I remember hearing the speaker listed for that year on their website). I have only missed a couple of the walks since that time.  We walk on the shoulder of Route 191 most of the way. Some drivers beep to show their support; others call out positive comments. This year, just before our first rest stop, one driver called out “I hope you’re keeping Christ in Christmas.” I guess, for some people, if they see a large group of people with signs that read “Peace”, they assume those folks must be liberals, radicals, or socialists and most likely atheists. If there had been time, we could have told him that the walk is sponsored by a lot of Christian churches and religious groups; that we stop at three churches along the way to rest and enjoy some refreshments; that we end the walk at the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, where we sing a couple Christmas carols. Here’s a picture of the group getting ready to move on from the second rest stop at First Baptist Church, which provided us with hot chocolate.

Every year when I get to the end of the walk my feet, legs and hips are hurting quite a bit and I wonder whether I should do the walk the next year. And as the date approaches for the next walk (2^nd Saturday in December), I wonder if I really want to put my body through that again. But, I always push those thoughts aside and head out for the walk. I do it for 3 reasons. First, more than 100 people walking down Route 191 just before Christmas carrying signs that read “Peace” is a good witness to the Christmas message of “Peace on earth, good will to men [and women]”. It was especially relevant this year with all the political talk about bombing ISIS and refusing entrance to refugees and all the fear being spread by some politicians. Second, as I walk, it is an opportunity to think about the importance of peace in our world and to consider ways that I can help foster that peace. Third, it is an opportunity to get together with others for whom bringing about peace is important. I always see people whom I recognize from previous walks. But there are also people participating for whom this is their first time doing the walk. During this year’s walk, I spoke with people I know and people I had just met. Here’s a link to the Christmas Peace Pilgrimage website. You can see pictures from this year’s walk by clicking on the Gallery link.

On Sunday, my wife Pat and I spent much of the day at the Christmas Market at Assumption Church in Morristown, NJ. This was another good Christmas season event. Pat had been asked by our friends, Sergio and Johanna Burani, to come to sell some of the books she has written. The catch? Vendors were asked to donate 50% of their profits to Africa Surgery. Sergio and Johanna are regular fundraisers for Africa Surgery and all the profits from Photos bySergio go to support Africa Surgery. Pat and I had read information about this charity on its website, so we knew that the organization helps coordinate surgery for children and adults living in Sierra Leone. On the website, we watched the video “The White Man on the Bicycle” about Tom Johnson, the founder. And at the end of the Christmas Market, we had the opportunity to talk with Tom about his organization. Tom had spent time in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer. We usually think of Peace Corps volunteers as being right out of college. However, Tom told us he was 38 years old when he joined the Peace Corps. After leaving the Peace Corps, he returned to Sierra Leone a number of years later and at the end of his trip, he left some money to help a couple people obtain surgeries they needed. That was the beginning of a mission that has helped hundreds of people there. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world and has been devastated by years of war. Tom showed us pictures of a child with a severe curvature of the spine related to tuberculosis. Untreated, this condition could result in paralysis. But, with the help of Africa Surgery, this young man will be able to lead a pretty normal life. Tom spends most of his year in Morristown, raising money and obtaining supplies for Africa Surgery. But he told us he spends 4 to 5 months a year in Sierra Leone, coordinating resources to provide the needed medical services. In fact, he told us he was leaving within the week to go there. Africa Surgery provides essential services to some very needy individuals. I like the idea of donating to a charity that I have a direct or indirect connection to. At the Christmas Market, Pat donated all of her profits to Africa Surgery. Although the Christmas Market is a relatively small operation, it raised $8000 for Africa Surgery. I encourage you to take a look at Africa Surgery’s website.

It’s now less than a week until Christmas day. We’ve done most of our shopping. Practically all the credit for that goes to Pat, who has spent a lot of time on-line ordering gifts, shopping in stores and wrapping gifts. While giving gifts to our loved ones is an important part of the season, I’m happy to have had the opportunity to spend some time thinking about the more spiritual aspects of Christmas and to be reminded that we are all God’s children and that Jesus came to show God’s love to all of us. Merry Christmas to all.

Give Peace a Chance

Every year the Catholic Church celebrates World Day of Peace on January 1 and the Pope delivers an address related to Peace.  Since it’s the beginning of 2012, I’ve been thinking about World Peace, or the lack of it.

Recently I’ve been reading Come to Think of It, a book of commentaries that Daniel Schorr delivered on National Public Radio for many years.  Every year, beginning in 1991, he had a commentary toward the end of December in which he spoke about how Peace on Earth had fared in the year that was coming to an end.  Each year, from his perspective, Peace had not fared very well on this Earth.  In 2002, he finished his commentary this way:  “Sorry about the gloomy note.  Maybe there’ll be a happier assessment of peace on Earth this time next year.  If not, I’m going to beg off doing these wrap-ups.”  He finally gave up in December of 2005, in a commentary that started “This is my last contribution of the year to All Things Considered, and so allow me to say good-bye 2005 and good riddance.”

For 2011, score one for Peace on Earth with the end of the war in Iraq and all US soldiers coming home.  However, we’re still fighting in Afghanistan and the news is telling us about a possible conflict with Iran, which is threatening to block oil shipments if additional sanctions are put in place against it.  Those are only the conflicts the US is involved in.  There are plenty of other armed conflicts we’re not a party to.

Having spent a fair amount of time this holiday season with my cute and delightful grandchildren, I’ve come up with an idea that I think might work.  My suggestion involves planting children, between the ages of newborn and four years, in places where people in power are making decisions about whether to get along with others or stir things up.

Have you been in places where cute little kids are doing their thing?  They attract people’s attention and inevitably bring a smile to their faces.  Whether it’s an eight month old showing a big bright smile, or an eighteen month old talking animatedly with words that only he understands, or a two and a half year old making all the adults with her copy her as she dances around.  I hadn’t been around young children much for a long time.  But, since we’ve had grandchildren, I’ve become much more aware of this phenomenon.  If you don’t spend much time around them, take my word for it – little kids change things.  All they have to do is walk into the room in all their cuteness and people start to smile.  So, if they were just around everywhere, I think people would lighten up.  The adults’ moods would change and they’d make better (more peaceful) decisions.

Two caveats – I think the kids need to be (as I said above) between the ages of newborn and four years and I think they need to be someone else’s kids.  I mention this last thing because little kids are not always being cute; sometimes they’re cranky because they’re not getting their own way.  But, if they’re someone else’s kids, we seem to be able to tolerate that more than with our own.  Actually, as I think about it, it might work best if they are grandchildren of the adults in the room.  We grandparents seem to think that everything our grandkids do is cute.

Anyhow, that’s my suggestion.  It might not work but, hey, I think it’s worth a try!