The Third Day Of Christmas ? Assassination
December 28: Mrs Bhutto is assassinated in Pakistan. The threat of a clash of civilisations draws closer. Confusion, anger, fear, violence rage. . What can anyone do?
On this day the Christian church recalls how a ruler assassinated infants in Bethlehem, for fear that one of them might one day usurp his role. . Confusion, anger, fear, violence raged. What could anyone do? Jesus? father listened to God, slipped away in the night, and found asylum in Egypt until that ruler passed away. Jesus inaugurated a way of bringing in good through a grassroots movement in which a thousand flowers bloomed.
The Community of Aidan and Hilda members on Holy Island used A Service After an Act of Terror for their Midday Prayer (from Volume Three ? Healing the Land ? of The Celtic Prayer Book). Each lit a candle for a particular intention. One prayed that a ?goodness bank? would be built up in Pakistan through the acts of many ordinary people that would come to be larger than the ?terrorist bank?. It worked at the time of the first Christmas. It can work again now.
'Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death.' Desmond Tutu.
