Where hope is born

In the darkness of nothingness, where cold makes those who do not exist tremble, hope is born. Where there is no path, except the one where wild animals once roamed, the need arises to blaze a new trail. When there is nothing to lose, when there is no shelter to take refuge in, salvation can be present. Only after the limits of reality imposed by those who possess strength, power and truth, the Messiah breaks in. Where nobody expects it, where it is impossible, in the place no one ever imagined. At the end of all, God approaches women and men who want a decent life.

There is always hope, even in the complete solitude of those who are not important to anyone. In the unworthiness of those who have no name or whose name is continually soiled by saints, the light of a star illuminates the one who will realize our desire to be, feel, love and be loved, to want and be wanted. From the insignificance of the underdog who just came to life, God commits to those who believed there was no life, no dreams, and nothing for them.

Even in the middle of the desert where the wind erases any trace bearing witness to our existence, it is possible that the breath of the divine Spirit will open a new path that will lead us to freedom, and to the life we want. Only those who have no roads seek vigorously, and only those can find, crawl and live in the Promised Land that comes after them. And it is on those impossible roads that God becomes one of us to walk by our side.

In the unwelcoming homes of those who have fossilized God in their image, God can become flesh again. In those homes where neither kings nor queens, neither princes nor princesses live, where every day people have to fight to defend their children’s lives and rights, salvation comes through powerfully. Just like the momentum of a crying baby, who screams asking for food, warmth and love; God’s salvation appears in the lives of mothers and fathers, men and women, whose only home is the love they profess.

At the end of what is acceptable, desirable, worthy, for a god who has become paper, it is possible that God will become one of us. After the fixed, excluding reality which pronounces the truth of a few, but which has been deified as the absolute truth, the reality of flesh and blood arises; a reality that is diverse, imperfect, sometimes dirty and sometimes bright; the reason why that boy came to life. In the plundering of religion, economy, morality, health, the divine... the Messiah breaks in.

Whoever does not have life yearns for it. Whoever feels oppressed awaits the birth of salvation. Whoever feels unfairly treated dreams of a just world. Whoever is aware of not having freedom aspires to it. And there, in those longings, hopes, dreams and aspirations, God is with us, building them and making them real little by little. And in this common will of life and truth, we also accompany others who feel excluded, but who are not defeated by despair, and whether they know it or not, they hold on to the hope that Christmas represents for us Christians. The hope of salvation, of a full life for everyone.

Carlos Osma