Which two words do you think are most often used to describe Christmas? In my opinion, it is JOY and PEACE. Both are also regularly heard at Christmas greetings. Even on the outside, everyone tries to live these words – to enjoy being with their neighbors and protect themselves from all the mistakes disturbing our moments together. The newborn Son of God gives us joy and peace so that we can spread them further and further. It still means under all circumstances. The joy and peace we receive are not meant to last only now or until the New Year, nor is it meant to serve only for our benefit, but to reach all people, even those with whom we do not get along. Sv. Stefan believed in Christ and was chosen among the first deacons. He did not experience the joy and peace of the gospel only in the first moments of his faith, but he also preserved them in the rough moments when his life hung in the balance and finally ended violently. This peace helped him forgive his tormentors and may have been the beginning of the conversion of St. Pavla, who guarded the clothes of furious stoners as a young man.
If we want, we can let ourselves be filled with the abundant joy and peace experienced by the people gathering at the manger. But you have to be able to keep that peace. It often happens that we can’t even bring it correctly home. Even after leaving the church, little things can turn us off, e.g., that the other driver did not give us priority, that children are running and not paying attention to cars, or similar things. These are not small things, but they often cause more anxiety than is necessary for ordinary caution. When we lose peace, so does joy. And our mission of peace-spreaders is failing because of this. And if we are to spread peace and joy to strangers, it is all the more difficult because we have nothing to do with them, and many could be stolen from us. But the joy of Christ is to reach all people; therefore, we must not be idle so that they, and after all, neither do we lose precious gifts because of our laziness. But we will remain steadfast and faithful disciples of Christ, especially when we maintain this rare peace and joy despite difficult life circumstances.
Not everyone has to experience persecution, where you can endure only with God’s help. Even if we suffer from many material and spiritual shortcomings, such as poverty or pain, we can maintain life’s optimism that with God’s help, things will get better, and we can be an encouragement to those around us. After all, the essence of martyrdom is to give up something of yourself, or even all of yourself, for the love of Christ and in the constant hope that he will give us true joy and happiness. And in these everyday life situations, we often have to renounce ourselves. When we do it with a smiling face, we fulfill our role as peacemakers excellently.
This event occurred in the Russian countryside three years after the Bolshevik Revolution. Communists came to the village to create a collective farm. The priest had been in exile in Siberia for a long time, so the temple was turned into a shed. Citizens signed up for fear of starvation and gave the remnants of their farms to the party. Young Sergej had nothing to give because there was nothing left at home. He started working in the new Kolkhoz as a reaper. He was very friendly, and his colleagues liked him. But the party did not like him. He never stopped expressing his religious beliefs. He prayed regularly and did not forget to bless himself before work and eating. He seemed dangerous to the party members. They tried to make his life as unpleasant as possible. They gave him hard work and the most demanding meadows, and they kept moving him, but they could not change his friendly behavior or religious beliefs. He ended up in bass. Here, he suffered just as much, if not more, because it was primarily non-political prisoners who gave him trouble.
He became the target of ridicule and humiliation for his “religious naivety.” But nothing broke him. When a fellow prisoner asked him how he could endure in such a fortress, he said: “Why should I cry and curse, when I know that if God has visited me once and pleased me and will not leave me again, but is waiting for me to come to him in faithfulness. “That’s what happened before too long. Exhausted, he fell one day and died two weeks later with a blissful expression on his face. And his fellow prisoners, excited by such perseverance, never gave up their joy, the only one that no one could take away from them. Let the joy and peace that we bear shine through our lives, especially where there is sadness.
