Komarica wishes Merry Christmas and calls for peace and love among all peoples

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Despite possible, not insignificant daily family, business or personal life problems and difficulties due to the current pandemic, but also without it, we must be aware that we are called and even obliged, as Christ's disciples and collaborators, not to lose hope or love for God's family work which definitively began on Christmas night, i.e. for His guaranteed love, care and mercy, said the Bishop of Banja Luka, Franjo Komarica.

This is the message of the Bishop of Banja Luka on the occasion of the upcoming Catholic Christmas, a holiday which, according to Komarica, many people may be facing in personal anxiety, and perhaps in sorrow due to the greater or lesser consequences of the COVID pandemic.

"Let us not allow any fears, anxieties, uncertainties, not even illness or the proximity of death to steal our right to our spiritual joy and peace of mind in the coming days of celebrating the beginning of our redemption - the birth of Jesus in the Bethlehem night," Komarica stated in his Christmas message.

He told the faithful:

"Let us not allow any earthly idols and demagogues to enslave us to the point that we fear them more and obey them more than the divine Child, Christmas, our only Savior and that of all humanity, the divine Peacemaker, Jesus Christ. Let us, from now on, until the end of our earthly pilgrimage, fully commit ourselves to His exalted and peace-making service and walk together with Him and His brothers and sisters, i.e. the members of His Church, on the path of salvation and eternal happy life, on the 'road of peace and love', open at every moment to provide saving help to all our fellow citizens and contemporaries as well," Komarica emphasized.

According to him, the news of the birth of Jesus Christ is "the most joyful, most reliable, most comforting, and most needed news for people of all times and all nations: God, the Creator of all, has definitively entered our human personal and common history. No one and nothing will ever be able to exclude or eradicate Him from it!".

"This means that in our time and in our life environment, among us is the incarnate God, the Lord of heaven and earth, and the Savior of all nations, all people of all classes, races, all types of influence and all prestige and positions!", said Komarica.

He wished a Merry Christmas and a 2022 filled with abundant God's blessings and peace. He also congratulated his Christian brothers and sisters who celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar with the traditional greeting "Peace of God! Christ is born".