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Everything has changed since we learned ten months ago how quickly a new virus is spreading globally and how threatening it is.
Corona determines our life.
And it doesn't look like a quick return to normal is to be expected.
Everything is different, including Christmas.
A year ago, nobody could have imagined that in 2020 the popular Christmas markets would be canceled, company parties canceled and vacation trips canceled, that table reservations for family dinners on the holidays would be omitted, that visits to grandparents would only be possible on a small scale - and that many people would be at Christmas will be left alone because the risk of travel and visits to senior facilities is simply too great.
And also the overcrowded church services, where people look for and find something for the soul, sing the soulful songs together and translate the comforting story of the birth of the Lord into their own life, these familiar festive elements also do not take place in this way.
Everything is different.
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Thank God, months ago a lot of thought and ideas developed how we can still celebrate and feel something of the “happy, blissful, gracious Christmas season”, as it says in the song “O you cheerful”.
When, if not at the end of this year, is that simply good for us.
Dealing with fear and loss
This well-known Christmas carol has been in my mind for some time, because it describes the festival so briefly and aptly.
“The world was lost” - yes, that's the way it is.
We have lost lightheartedness.
Everyday masks, distance rules and hygiene measures are not big things, they protect us and others.
And yet they outwardly reflect the fear and uncertainty that have arisen within us.
Families are heavily burdened when short-time working or home office has been the order of the day, when school classes and daycare groups can be sent home at any time, when digital lessons and childcare have to be organized in addition.
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The people who work in care facilities and hospitals, the educators and teachers are in high tension every day in addition to the workload, because they risk their own health.
Quite a few oppress existential fears because they cannot run their business due to the necessary restrictions in the crisis.
And those who have survived the disease report how long the health problems persist.
Afterwards, a lot is different than before.
“The world has been lost”, the relatives of the deceased this year truly know what such pain feels like.
And with the world as it was before Corona, the certainties that we have taken for granted for so long, the question of God has also become more urgent.
What does God have to do with the crisis?
Does faith hold?
Is this time a hint that we should do some things differently and change our behavior?
In any case, this crisis could prove to be a real lesson on what really matters in life.
Door to a new time
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The poet of the first stanza of the Christmas carol apparently experienced it that way.
Johannes Daniel Falk (1768–1826) lost four of his seven children to a typhus epidemic.
But his faith carried him and showed him a way.
In Weimar he founded a “rescue house for neglected children”.
That became his life's work, and in 1815 he dedicated his song to these children.
“Christ has appeared to atone for us.” Faith in the Savior Jesus, whom God has placed by our side, is not a consolation that only works on the outside.
This is what this strange word says, which means other than "reconcile".
"O you happy": The writer and social worker Johannes Daniel Falk wrote the popular Christmas carol
Source: pa / dpa
“Atonement” means to face the real conditions in the world, to uncover the dangers and to call them by name that threaten our lives;
the external natural disasters, strokes of fate and pandemics - and even more everything that blossoms inside us and grows into wars, refugee flows, entire peoples impoverished in hunger and corrupt injustice.
It is unbridled egoism, greed, mistrust, elbow mentality, arrogance, envy, lies and overestimation of ourselves with which we put ourselves in God's place.
All of this has to be revealed if something is to really change in the conditions in the world.
And it came to light when Jesus appeared and lived radically truthfully and lovingly towards God and man.
This showed who he could win over for this new lifestyle and how others raged against it because they felt threatened in their way of life and beliefs.
And they lived out their anger on the helpless, impotent Son of God.
He accepted it.
Yes, he drew the dark side in human hearts.
He bore the guilt of the world in love until death - and so he atoned for it, overcame it from within.
This is why we call Jesus the Savior.
He opened the door to a new age full of humanity and unity with God.
There is a way and we can walk it.
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Now, in the time of the pandemic, it is becoming clear whether we are walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
“God with you.
Do not be afraid ”, encourages the ecumenical Christmas campaign of the Protestant and Catholic Church for this good reason.
The angels are on their way
And the "heavenly armies"?
Are the angels just mythological accessories in the Christmas legend that one could safely do without in enlightened times?
But on the contrary.
For me there is no question: God is doing his best to help us right now.
The angels are on their way.
They inspire researchers to find effective vaccines and drugs that will ultimately help us overcome this pandemic.
These challenges still need to be resolved before the vaccination starts
The first doses of the vaccine are on their way to Germany, but there are some problems that have not yet been completely resolved.
The federal police even fear attacks on the vaccination trucks.
And also warn patient advocates.
Source: WORLD / Daniel Franz
They support the politically responsible in making the right decisions.
They equip the tireless helpers at the beds of the intensive care units with staying power.
They warm the parishioners in the security service at the drafty doors of our churches from the inside.
They inspire parents with new ideas to keep children bored when they cannot meet their friends often.
And we impatient, for whom the restrictions demand a lot, they instill patience.
The angels are helpful at work, and so they give glory to God.
I got an idea.
If Christmas is very different this year, why not spread the comforting of this festival in an unusual way?
“Tweet Christmas”, how about that?
Short messages should only contain a few characters.
The three lines have exactly 100: “World was lost, Christ was born.
Christ appeared to make atonement for us.
Heavenly armies shout honor to you. "
I am curious to see how people react to a short message like this on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.
Will you be surprised?
Do they ask questions?
Will a conversation develop about what Christmas means?
I can well imagine it.
And I am sure in this way we bring some amazement and happiness to those who are important to us.
This is how we stick together in this extraordinary time.
I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas.
"Christian is born: rejoice, O Christianity!"
The Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing is the chairman of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference
Source: picture alliance / dpa