Bishop Trevor Mwamba is the President of the United National Independence Party - the oldest political party in Zambia
On December 25, 2024, the first night of Hanukkah harmonised with Christmas Day. This wonderful alignment of two important religious events of two faith traditions was a moment of oneness and shared celebration.
The overlap of Christmas and the start of Hanukkah does not often happen. In the last century it has happened only five times, in 1910, 1921,1959,2005, and recently Christmas Day 2024.
Peering into the future the next harmonisation will be in 2035 and 2054.
The message for humanity is that both Christmas and Hanukkah are one sharing and with other great Faiths of the World, themes of light, hope, and peace in the darkness of our world.
The darkness is manifested in the Ukraine war, in the war in the Sudan, in the war in Yemen, in the genocide in Gaza, in the post election conflict in Mozambique; in all the evil leadership which strives to divide people and nations. The source of humanity’s darkness is the loss of its moral compass and spirituality.
Yet there is an ancient message but timeless message of hope that speaks to our darkness.
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned… For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:2, 6, 7).
Christ the Light of the World and Prince of Peace is the world’s moral compass we need to embrace.
Its Christ’s Spirit which flickers in the candles on menorahs and is the Light of Christmas trees reminding us of the common hope that binds humanity. Humanity exists to live in the Light that dispels the darkness of the world and to nurture peace and hope for a wholesome world rooted in justice and righteousness.
To do so humanity needs a positive shift in relationships and wise leadership amongst our world leaders not driven by fear and prejudice.
For ultimately peace is about good relationships. As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. succinctly said in 1964, "We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish together as fools."
This echoes what the brilliant philosopher Martin Buber termed the I -Thou relationship. All his teachings were summed up in this sentence, ‘All real living is meeting’.
By meeting, he meant opening ourselves, not hiding behind a rigid code or ritual or tradition. It's relating to God, people, and nature with our whole being: this is the I - Thou relationship.
Such relationship is a genuine meeting, a give and take, engaging our hearts in our capacity to love, to be compassionate and caring makes us human.
The opposite is what Buber posited as the I - It relation. This is not a genuine meeting it implies treating God, people, and nature, as things or objects to be used. It’s to think of God, people, and nature as objects, subjects, things, not on the same level as oneself. It's an arrogant belief that people and things exist for ones own benefit. This is the capacity of hate and greed.
The I - Thou relationship is what in Africa is called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the reverence of our common humanity - I am because you are and you are because I am. And without each other we cannot be.
Or in the words of the English poet John Donne, “No man is an island entire of itself everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”.
Our I am is a “part of the main” the Great I AM - Christ the Light of the World and Prince of Peace. We can only exist in relation to the Great I AM.
We advocate Ubuntuism in our pursuit for World peace and dispelling the darkness of wars in our world. Only when we see each other in the I - Thou relationship shall peace flourish in our lives and world.
Its God’s own Peace on Earth we realize in the I-Thou relationship. A message the world desperately needs to hear now more than ever.
President John F. Kennedy in his Peace Speech at the American University in 1962, sagaciously discerned genuine peace as collective, global and international because, “There is no single, simple key to this peace no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation.”
The message of hope calls on every citizen of the world to be peace and to seek to resolve conflicts through peaceful negotiations, and to condemn the enormous danger to the survival of the planet posed by the evil of war.
Our prayer for ourselves and the world is to be enfolded by Peace and strengthened to spread good will to others.
We can begin now not tomorrow to find our moral compass and rediscover the spirituality we have lost inorder to regain our Ubuntuism.
As President John F. Kennedy eloquently stated, “For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”
May we always place our mortality in the Hands of the Immortal One with hope inspired by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957) poem entitled God Knows:
“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied:
‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’
So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”
**Culled From The January Issue of PAV Magazine. Bishop Trevor Mwamba is the President of the United National Independence Party - the oldest political party in Zambia.
