Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

In the Liturgical calendar, commonly known as the Church calendar, today is the fourth Sunday in Advent and the last Sunday before Christmas which will be celebrated on Saturday,  December 25. 

On that auspicious day all Churches in Uganda will be filled to the maximum with happy and jubilant Christians singing popular Christmas carols, including, ‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night’ which will be the  processional hymn in most places of worship.

Christmas is a season of joy,  love,  peace and lots of gifts, but the greatest gift came from God our Father in heaven. Out of his inestimable love and compassion for us humankind, God sent his beloved son Jesus Christ to earth as a gift through a miraculous virgin birth.  Jesus left heaven, became a man, lived on earth, though innocent he died for our sins, but rose again after three days and ascended into heaven. He will come again.

Christmas reminds me of the good old days, especially the 1950s and 1960s, but one should not live in the past because the best is yet to come. Christmas teaches and reminds us that despite ongoing challenges, difficulties, problems, trials and tribulations, God will never abandon His people and creation.

Our faith as believers is based on the fact that no matter what happens, God is with us, which is the meaning of Emmanuel, the name an Angel of the Lord gave for the Prince of Peace who was born in Bethlehem on the first Christmas.

In the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus, Matthew, who wrote predominantly for a Jewish audience, puts emphasis on the historical aspects of the nativity story as fulfillment Old Testament prophecy while Luke a Greek, who wrote largely for a non-Jewish audience or gentiles, like us, emphasises the all-inclusive nature of the Kingdom of God, including how God selects people on the margins of society, people who are not among the chosen few to accomplish and fulfill His divine mission.

The story is basically the same, namely that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and born in a manger in Bethlehem, Judea. I had the honour and privilege to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 1998 and have pleasant memories of that historic city.

After almost two years of doom, gloom, misery, untold suffering and uncertainty caused, inter alia, by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ugandans are longing for a Merry Christmas. Despite current economic hardships and financial constraints, I am sure most Ugandans will do whatever it takes to have a merry Christmas and happier New Year.

What disappoints me is that the Christmas spirit of joy,  love,  human brotherhood and sisterhood does not seem to last in Uganda. Soon after Christmas, in January and February, Ugandans will be reminded once again of the anniversaries of some tragic, unpleasant and violent events which wananchi would rather forget and not remember at all. It’s like opening an old wound which is in the process of healing. May the Lord have mercy on Uganda!

 The message of Christmas, peace on earth and goodwill to humankind, must guide and inspire Ugandans to search for peaceful and political solutions to our national and regional problems. Enough of guns, gunmen, violence and militarism!

 I tell you, as a scholar of politics, there is no lasting military solution to political problems facing Uganda,  Ethiopia,  DR Congo and many African countries.  African leaders should not squander Africa’s meagre resources on guns, tear gas, fighting wars and the military.  The real enemies of Uganda and Africa are ignorance, poverty and disease and require significant investment in the Education, Agriculture and Health sectors as the African Union has rightly recognized.

I wish our esteemed readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Harold Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat