December 2001

Friends and Colleagues,

Have a joyful Christmas. Open your heart and receive the gift of a smile from the heart. Really.

We are living under a sentence of Life.
We are living with the gift of death.
They are not so far apart as we thought.
Now we can see, what before was veiled.
What used to be plain, is now hidden in mists.
"I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can."*
It is such a short time,
And we are already weary with the "War on Terrorism".
CNN heros are tomorrow’s terrorists,
And vice-a, vice-a, vice-a-versa.
He who is not busy dying,
Is busy being born.

The rain is falling in Amsterdam,
And the cold seeps into our bones.
The sky is slate-gray, as misery fights with Sinter Klaus bells,
And shoppers jostle on the shining cobblestones
To find a warm pathway to the perfect present.
We find our faces reflect the smile in our hearts
Surprised by joy.

We remember the sunshine of Yogyakarta.
The ice of Afghanistan.
Our neighbors are the Other, the strangers, the terrorists.
No clash of civilizations, no us and them, no struggle for power.
Just a smile from the heart.
Hello neighbor. "Selamat Idul Fitri. Mohon maaf lahir dan batin."**
Merry Christmas.
Isn’t it good to know
That God forgives us all,
Even the ones who nailed him to that tree?

* lyric from a song by Leonard Cohen, I think "The Sisters of Mercy."

**Idul Fitri is the celebration at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan where it is customary to ask forgiveness from all your family and neighbors for both your apparent faults (lahir), as well as your inner, hidden failings (batin).

Bernie Adeney-Risakotta

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 159