Christmas greeting from Puljić and Vukšić: Be kind and forgive each other

On the occasion of Christmas, the Archbishop of Vrhbosna, Cardinal Vinko Puljić and Archbishop Coadjutor Monsignor Tomo Vukšić sent their message to priests, monks, nuns and believers entitled: ‘With the birth of Jesus Christ, the Godman entered our history’.

‘This local church in Vrhbosna felt the need to awaken the spirit of togetherness and common walk in faith. It felt the need to renew everything in Christ. For that reason, we did and celebrated our first synod. Now we are going to meet Christmas where God stepped onto our life path as incarnate, and born as a child. This is how His walk with us and for us began.

We rejoice in this manifested and gifted love of God. In that, we recognize a call to align our personal and joint walk with him. For that reason, our synod’s motto is ‘Renew all things in Christ’.

To align our walk with Jesus we need to be realized in smallness because he became small to be close to us. And he called us to learn from him who is gentle and of a humble heart.

There is no renewal in Christ where pride, arrogance, and selfishness reign. In order to truly celebrate and experience Christmas, we need to accept our human limitations, our sinfulness, and our ependence on God’s love.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, to conceive him by the Holy Spirit, cries out as she looks at the insignificance of her servant. She teaches us to be aware of our insignificance and true dependence on God. Although in every Our Father we pray:

‘Thy will be done!’, this surrender to God's will has not matured in us. Because there is no such tradition - fear and disorientation reign in human hearts.

To truly experience Christmas, we must follow the path of Mary and the humble Saint Joseph and be available and co-responsible for God’s work. And so, Christmas teaches us synodality, how to walk together and toward each other, God toward us in little Jesus and we toward Jesus whose birth we celebrate.

On one occasion, as Jesus approached Jerusalem, he looked at it with a pain in his heart and wept over it, saying, ‘If you would know what is for your peace’ (Lk 19: 41-44).

The time in which we are writing this we experience as stressful and tense due to political skirmishes and ignoring of man, his rights and dignity.

Strange unrest has crept into the people, the media and the public.

In addition to the fact that the powerful are playing with the little man, the uncertainty of COVID-19 also persists. Jesus incarnate was born to bring man peace in conscience, soul and in society.

But today's man has not realized what is important for human peace. In his epistle, St. Peter says:

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1: 6-9).

Every year, this aggressive consumer mentality tries to ‘steal Jesus’ from us. On the occasion of the birth of Jesus, various bazaars are opened and cultural events are organized, but Jesus is not there. Again, the man did not realize what was important for his peace. St. Paul says in his epistle:

‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

(Ephesians 4: 29-32).
By sending you this Christmas message, we want to encourage you in the faith and encourage you to be open to the peace that Jesus brings. May this peace of Christ reign in your consciences,
in your families and in your environment, that the celebration of Christmas may shine with strong faith, firm trust and joyfully lived love.

In order for this peace of Christ to be visible, it is necessary to create mutual reconciliation, forgiveness and trust. In this spirit, we wish you a Merry Christmas, which will fill your hearts
with grace, so that faith may be a joyful experience of the birth of Jesus. In a special way, we want Christmas to bring children joyful experiences of childhood and growth in faith.

We wish you a Merry Christmas, young people, to be open in your growth to the message and teachings of Jesus, so that you may become complete people of heart, soul and mind. We wish you, dear families, a Merry Christmas with the wish that every family resemble as much as possible the Holy Family of Nazareth. May birth of Jesus bring you the joy of communion and harmony in love.

We especially wish a Merry Christmas to you, the sick and the infirm, as well as to you who are advanced in age, that the birth of Jesus may bring you comfort, strength and firm hope in life.

Let us unite our hearts in prayer to the newborn King, to share his peace in this country, and in the world, wherever people suffer because of injustice, persecution and disenfranchisement.
In that common prayer, with the warmest greetings, we wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a blessed young summer of 2022.’