Pray, give and act for the Holy Land!
Canon Professor Michael Hull writes:
We read in the Psalms, ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers! For my companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good’ (Ps. 122.6–9).
In October, November and December 2023, I lamented in Inspires Online the evil sweeping through the Holy Land. Along with many others, I noted the tragedy of our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land, especially the babies and mothers among them, who have been humiliated, displaced and butchered. A year later, things are worse. The situation in the land in which Jesus was born and its environs is desperate beyond measure. As disciples of Jesus Christ, whose Incarnation we celebrate on Christmas Day, we must come to their aid insofar as we are able. We cannot stand by idly. We must help spiritually, materially and politically. We cannot let another Christmas pass whilst genocide, apartheid and gross violations of international law rage at this very moment where we should find peace on earth and goodwill towards all.
How can we help spiritually? By praying! Advent and Christmastide are seasons of concentrated prayer. They are seasons that recall the plight of the dispossessed and persecuted in the misfortunes that plague the Holy Family: a birth in a stable and flight into another land to escape the ferocity of a diabolical despot. As we read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Holy Scriptures around the commemoration of the Incarnation, we should storm heaven with prayers on behalf of those who daily face, two-thousand years later, the same sort of viciousness Mary and Joseph endured whilst seeking to protect their Holy Child and follow God’s will. Jesus reminds us in ‘the parable of the persistent widow’ (Lk. 18.1–18) that we should pray and not lose heart in begging God, for it is a mark of our faith that we entrust things to God’s mercy and ask things of Him.
How can we help materially? By giving! There are many charities to which we may donate, for example, Abraham’s Children in Crisis and the Al Ahli Hospital Appeal. Two millennia ago, Mary and Joseph and Jesus were essentially refugees in their own homeland. It is unconscionable that we should not help refugees like them with our money. St James reminds us, ‘If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works”. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?’ (Jas. 2.15–2).
How can we help politically? By acting! As we witness appalling atrocities against civilians across the Middle East, we need to urge governments, especially our own, to call for an immediate ceasefire and to demand that international law is enforced so that civilians are protected and crimes against humanity are terminated. At the same time, we must boycott and sanction those who relentlessly attack the weakest and most vulnerable. We ought not to lose sight of the importance of a free State of Palestine, of borders based on the 1967 lines, as the United Nations recognises them, and Jerusalem as an international city. True peace will not come to the Holy Land without true justice. It is our responsibility to lobby on behalf of such righteousness. Peace is not only an absence of war: it is a presence demanding natural virtue on every level.
We find ourselves at Christmas 2024 in a paradox. There is dense darkness in the Holy Land and yet the Star of Bethlehem still shines brightly. You and I are meant to be a part of its light insofar as we reflect the image of Jesus Christ. The Magi followed that Star to reach the Holy Child and to pay Him homage (Matt. 2.1–11). In like manner, you and I have the light of Holy Scripture, which bids us to let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven (Matt. 5.16). This Christmas let our lives of discipleship burn brightly and scatter the darkness as we pray, give and act for the Holy Land!
The Reverend Canon Professor Michael Hull has been an Assistant Priest at St Vincent’s since 2015. He is also the Principal of the Scottish Episcopal Institute.
