Christmas truce

Have you felt the weight of this year’s conflicts? Ukraine, Gaza, cultural wars, battles that rage in our hearts... Whew!

At the end of 2023, a film comes to mind, Joyeux Noël, which depicts real moments from the First World War. The invention of the machine gun had prevented creative warlike manoeuvres like Napoleon's and restricted soldiers to trenches full of rats, mud, blood, and suffering.

But when the war’s first Christmas arrived in 1914, Scottish, German, and French soldiers heard Christmas carols coming from the enemy trenches and declared a truce. For one night, they buried the dead and played football.

They shared chocolate, champagne, and photos of loved ones. They looked each other in the eye and saw the humanity of those they had seen behind rifles. The spirit of Christmas prevailed over the destruction of war.

I wish something similar for us this year. Peace, truce, encounters. To put aside the weapons we use to defend ourselves and risk tenderness. To calm our inner war and replace it with serenity.

How do we get there? The Christmas atmosphere certainly helps: setting the table, wrapping presents, humming Jingle Bells. But the key is to live the original meaning of Christmas.

I find it interesting that in the same Middle East, in conflict then and now, the birth of Jesus brought a proclamation of peace: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

Christians like me celebrate that God has come to us and offered us respite. He has declared his favour on fragmented and divided hearts. He has brought hope to strained meals and unresolved resentments.

We don't have to remain at war with ourselves, with each other or with God. Christ’s arrival brings a serene manger and a breeze of peace to all those who welcome his good news.

René Breuel, evangelical pastor in Rome.