It is a tradition for the Silsilah Dialogue Movement to share a message to Christians on the occasion of Advent and Christmas time and to the Muslims on the occasion of the month of Ramadhan and the celebration of the Eid’l Fitr. This message is addressed now to the Christians.
The 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines that will be celebrated in 2021 and the year of the youth in 2019 in preparation to this event invites Christians to reflect about their mission as Christians called to witness their faith in the spirit of dialogue with all, including people of other religions. This is one of the urgent signs of the times today considering that we are entering in one of the most dangerous times of our history where sometimes religions are used as means to divide us on the national or international level. This is true also in the Philippines, and it is more visible in some areas of Mindanao where we observe that some Muslim groups tend to change attitudes in relation to other non-Muslims or other Muslims who do not belong to the same group who practice the Islamic faith.
This message is an occasion to invite Christians to reflect on the coming of Jesus, the Emmanuel ( God among us). This great event in the history of humanity today is lived with a lot of contradictions even among Christians. Advent and Christmas is one specific time of the year when Christians are invited to prepare themselves spiritually. It coincides with the end of the year. Christians have the responsibility to live this special time according to the spirit of this event. In addition, we have reports from many countries, including some parts of Mindanao, where the Muslims, who in the past, used to share the joy of the Christmas with the Christians. Now, many of them are discouraged to celebrate the joy of Christmas with the Christians as they have done before. We are invited to respect, with pain, this new “way” hoping that inside the Muslim Ummah around the world and also in the Philippines can be developed the spirit of sharing joys and pains with all the neighbours . This is the way to live together. The joys of pains of a person or a group do not mean that we are directly part of what the others feel and believe, but we are invited to “link” to the neighbours’ joys and pains, even if we do not believe and feel in the same way. It is a form of solidarity to share appreciation and respect to our neighbours and friends. This is what we, in Silsilah, are encouraged to do. In the same way, we invite Christians to continue to be in solidarity with those Muslims who appreciate their way of sharing together joys and pains.
The increasing reality of deteriorating relations among Christians and Muslims in many parts of the world and also in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao, has to be accepted with suffering and bring us to a deeper reflection. In this specific message addressed to the Christians who are entering the period of the Advent ( waiting time ), they are invited to remember the coming of Jesus who brought to the world the great message of love and salvation. During the celebration of Christmas, the Christians are invited to reflect and pray more to enter in the real spirit of Advent and Christmas. If many do not understand today this message it is also because many Christians do not live the real spirit of this celebration.
Difficult times in the life of a person or groups are also occasions to reflect and understand what to do to make the celebration a visible message of love and solidarity. Thus, the invitation to start the time of Advent as an occasion of “personal conversion to a deeper spiritual Christian life”.
Thus, we challenge the Christians with this message to reflect why many of them are not faithful to the real spirit of this time of the liturgical year ( the year proposed by the Church to celebrate along the year the major events of Salvation). We have many examples coming from Jesus to approach other Christians who remember the message of advent and Christmas and share as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus meeting the two disciples who where disoriented and confused and share with them the message that Jesus gave to us with his life, death and resurrection.
We believe that today, more than before, we are challenged to reflect on our faith and how to be witnesses of the love of God and the love of neighbours with all. This is what we wish to remind all Christians with this message and to say to the Muslims that respect, love and forgiveness are also basic points of the Islamic faith that we appreciate. For sure, relations among Muslims and Christians can improve and this is our hope and prayer.