(OSV News) — Amid disaster and division, Catholics across the world celebrated Christmas by lifting up their hope in Christ, finding renewed faith and joy, and especially in profoundly challenging circumstances.

“There are many of us in Jamaica who feel we are not in the mood for festivities and celebrating Christmas with decorations, food, and merriment,” admitted Bishop John Persaud, shepherd of the Diocese of Mandeville, Jamaica, and apostolic administrator of that nation’s Diocese of Montego Bay.

Bishop Persaud’s video Christmas message, posted December 24 by the Antilles Episcopal Conference on its Facebook page, came nearly two months after the deadly Hurricane Melissa tore across several Caribbean nations, slamming into Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, the strongest experienced by the island in recorded history.

Yet “even as people pick up the pieces, in some cases, literally, and begin to rebuild,” said Bishop Persaud, “Melissa has also taught us many lessons” that illuminate the true meaning of Christmas.

He described the disaster as “a chance for us to reclaim our common humanity” and “recognize that we are all sisters and brothers.”

“We are family,” said Bishop Persaud. “Melissa forced us to see the God who is with us.”

As Jamaicans and people of goodwill help the island to recover from the hurricane, the true meaning of Christ’s birth is illuminated, said Bishop Persaud, who began his message by quoting John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and lived among us.”

“These are not the stories that very often make the headlines in our media,” he said. “But these are the stories of love, of caring, of kindness. They are our Christmas stories.”

Faith amid war in Ukraine

In Ukraine, where Russia’s attacks, which began in 2014 and are now approaching the 12-year mark, continued on Christmas Eve, Basilian Sister Lucia Murashko shared with OSV News a video message she recorded on Christmas morning, as she drove toward the rising sun singing traditional Christmas carols.

“Christ is born,” she said as her car traveled under miles-long stretches of netting to counter Russian drone attacks, which have deliberately targeted civilians as part of what analysts have called a “human safari,” and which have been condemned by a United Nations commission as crimes against humanity.

Along with several fellow Basilian Sisters, Sister Lucia has remained in the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion to serve area residents, with the order receiving the 2023-2024 Lumen Christi (“Light of Christ”) award, the highest honor conferred by the nonprofit Catholic Extension Society.

“My dear friends, thank you very much for being with us, supporting us, standing with us for peace, for victory, for freedom,” said Sister Lucia.

In Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, one of several sites struck by a massive December 23 Russian attack that killed at least three, including a child, and left entire regions without power, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, emphasized the closeness of Christ in the face of death and destruction.

“He incarnates in our tears and suffering, even in the darkness of our homes and the cold of homes,” said Major Archbishop Shevchuk during his December 25 homily at Kyiv’s Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. “Instead of sadness, he will give us the heavenly joy of Christmas.”

Major Archbishop Shevchuk also called for the faithful to “carol together … so loudly that all the thrones of tyrants will shake, so that everyone in different parts of Ukraine and the world will hear that in Kyiv, in Ukraine, despite everything, the people are celebrating Christmas!”

Unprecedented Christmas gathering in Pakistan

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, where Christians have experienced sustained, structural, and often deadly persecution, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif joined apostolic nuncio Archbishop Germano Penemote and Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi for what UCA News called “an unprecedented Christmas gathering” on December 22 at Sharif’s secretariat in Islamabad.

The event, which saw the three cut a Christmas cake as part of the celebration, was one of several Christmas festivities publicly held in a number of cities throughout Pakistan, a change from the removals of public Christmas displays of prior years. According to UCA News, Pakistan’s government administration even helped to sponsor some of the Christmas rallies.

Sharif called on Pakistanis to collaborate in fostering peace, prosperity, and religious unity. UCA News reported that Ata-ur-Rehman Saman, deputy director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, the human rights entity established in 1985 by Pakistan’s Catholic bishops, said the December 22 gathering at Sharif’s secretariat marked a “deeply meaningful moment for the Christian community.”

A call to be hope and light

In his video message, Bishop Persaud encouraged the faithful to “tell the Christmas story by the way we are with each other.”

“Let our words be kinder and let our actions be more caring,” he said.

And, as the church prepares to close the Jubilee Year of Hope, Bishop Persaud urged Catholics to allow the graces received through that experience to “transform our lives and cause us to be hope and light in a world of darkness and despair.”

“As we live the promise of Christmas, let us allow the Christ Child to shine his light through us,” he said.

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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X.