"Poverty shivering, cold, and starving in war has no nationality, no affiliation, it belongs to no one, it is outcast, humiliated in its humanity, divine in its suffering. In the prosperity, in the romantic, idyllic atmosphere of the holiday, our alien artificial Christmases do not take notice of God incarnated in poverty. While we are waiting for the miracle around a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, hundreds and thousands of people are fighting for a satisfying bite, crying out wordlessly from the depths of their cold souls, yearning for a real, honest, clean hug, a handshake, through which they can feel the watchful warmth of our sensitive hearts. Before Christmas, we visited Subcarpathia to bring light, food, and humanity to the homeless homes of the elderly and sick, families with many children. With the bitter mood of the banana box, the holiday package-free aid shipment, we set out to find the Man in Transcarpathia suffering from the ravages of the war. We brought freshly cooked hot food, durable food, warm blankets, the Bethlehem flame and our hearts wounded by human suffering to the Holy Family in Subcarpathian Bethlehem. We met Jesus with tearful eyes and a grateful heart, speechless from happiness and pain. Jesus dressed in simple, clean clothes in the unheated and electricity-less stables. This is the human tragedy of everyday eternal Bethlehem.
All those who provided time, effort, food, material and material assistance in Subcarpathian Bethlehem contributed to the Christmas celebration. Somewhere deep inside, in the quiet solitude of the pure human heart, they must know that their love will not pass without a trace.
Where is God in the Christmas of wars?
Why did you leave the starving man deep in the unheated dark room?
The answer is you, the answer is us. Your helpful presence, the pure love of your heart, is the answer of God driven away by war. No one is so poor that they cannot bring life and humanity to the unworthy solitude of human misery with a hug.
"I am here, Lord, send me!", this is the answer of the forgotten God, expelled from our lives, in the world of suffering. We are God's answers. It is not at all certain that a premature baby will survive its birth, its viability depends on many conditions. The Bethlehem Jesus of Subcarpathia is still in labor, on the verge of life and death. It is not enough for us to mourn and feel sorry for the incapable God and man, or simply to silence our screaming conscience by looking for scapegoats and engaging in politicized debates, but we must hear the death throes of the suffering lives that cry out for our humanity. Only the mother truly understands the tears of a crying premature child. Let us be present, fragile, with a mother's heart, with active love at the premature nativity scenes of Transcarpathia and the world.
May God reward everyone for their active love and kindness, with which they contributed to a happier Christmas for the people of the war-torn region! May the Peace of the Infant of Bethlehem be your reward!
P. György Alfréd MI Kamillianus - „Father Fred”
