Youth Forum: ‘Entrepreneurship the key to national development’
Feb 10, 2015, 10:57 AM
• Brothers and Sisters in Christ; Brothers and Sisters of the Muslim community;
All men and women of goodwill.
We have just celebrated once again the great feast of the Birth of Jesus. It took place in a small town called
Peace…yes, peace is the message that God wants us to take home in our hearts when we celebrate the feast of Christ’s birth. Some time ago, it was decided that the first day of each New Year would be set aside as ‘World Day of Peace’. However, in spite of the efforts and goodwill of so many people who pray and work and yearn for such peace, we seem to be losing the ‘battle’ for peace..
What is even more sad, the very place where the Prince of Peace was born into our world has been, for so many years, a major centre of conflict and division. We still refer to it as the ‘
• Pope Benedict XVI has expressed on many occasions his deep concern over the exodus of Christians from the land where Christ and the Church were born. The same is also happening in other areas of the Middle East – especially in
• We are aware of the efforts being made for a long time now to find a solution to the need for a
• Are there any signs of hope? A Catholic Parish priest in Gaza told a recent visitor to the Holy Land that a group of Muslims within Gaza phoned him to find out if the Christians were surviving ‘as best as they could’. It was just one example of the solidarity that breaks down religious differences in a time of severe crisis. The same visitor also met some people from
Very often in a time of crisis, a spirit of solidarity and compassion can emerge and blossom among those whose lives have been a nightmare. It is the urge and the need of human beings to be together – especially in the hour of common suffering. For deep down in every man and woman is the image of God that moves us to reach out to each other, whatever be our differences of race, creed or culture. For Christians, it is even more so because we believe that it belongs to the very nature of God Himself – who is a communion of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - in the one supreme Divine Being. During his life on earth, Jesus constantly manifested this compassion of God towards those who were broken, helpless or abandoned in any way. I think of his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and the story of the Prodigal Son. He was able to touch the lives of so many people because he too shared fully in all that is human. He was wounded by our sins; and by his wounds, we are healed (I Peter, 2:24).
• What can we hope for…?
For the peace of
May peace reign in your walls, in your palaces peace!
For love of my brethren and friends, I say: Peace be with you. AMEN.