Christmas of hope, the virtue that propels us beyond all evil
Editor-in-chief Fr Gianni Criveller's wish to AsiaNews readers on the feast that opens this year's Jubilee. "We are close to the Christian communities of Asia who live this time as an occasion for evangelisation. Even in a world marked by wars and oppression, we continue to turn our gaze to the East where the sun that illuminates and warms our lives rises: Jesus’.
Dear readers of AsiaNews,
our agency lives the days and weeks of the Christmas festivities and the beginning of the New Year with intensity. Indeed, we are close to the Christian communities of Asia who live these days as an occasion for evangelisation. Even in countries where it is not celebrated as a public holiday, in China for example, ‘the spirit of Christmas’ pervades the entire society. I believe that even the commercial and romantic aspect is an invitation for many to ask where this beautiful feast comes from. On the Christmas nights I spent in China, including an unforgettable one in chilly Beijing, Catholic churches were visited by long queues of cold and curious people. They were not worshippers, but citizens attracted by the gentle and engaging atmosphere that Christmas can create.
From Gaza to Myanmar, passing through other territories of the vast Asian continent, Lebanon, Israel, Yemen it will still be a Christmas of sorrow. Sad and anxious will also be the Christmas of those who, in Hong Kong, are in prison, deprived of the good of freedom, because in freedom they have believed. In the sky of Bethlehem, the angels announced peace: how is it possible to continue to hope, in a world of wars and oppression?
By opening the Holy Door, Pope Francis today inaugurates the Jubilee of Hope. Hope is a child ‘who came into the world on Christmas Day last year’, as the poet Charles Peguy wrote. It is precisely the child called hope that drags with it, on the roads of the world, its two big sisters: faith and charity. If our faith and charity are shaken by the evil in the world, we cannot lose hope: that is why, although it is the younger sister, it is the more important one.
Merry Christmas and Happy Jubilee Year 2025 of peace and hope. We will continue to fulfil our mission to inform and reflect on the affairs of the peoples and Christian communities of Asia. Let us continue to turn our gaze towards the East, for it is from there that the sun rises that illuminates and warms our lives, Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
The image accompanying this greeting is a detail from the watercolour Madonna and Child Jesus, painted in 1941 by the Chinese painter Huang Ruilong. The work is part of the collection of the Museo Popoli e Culture of the Pime Missionary Centre in Milan
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