From the Editor

While anxiety and grim expectations grip the people of Albay with Mayon Volcano's imminent explosion, and while grave concerns of inundation due to a dam project flood the populace of the First District of Camarines Sur, Christmas comes.

While the nation remains outraged and grieving over the murder of the "Ampatuan Massacre" victims, and while apprehensions regarding the automation of the 2010 elections become keener with news of delays in its preliminary implementation phase, Christmas comes.

It comes awaited perhaps; unbidden, assuredly.

Christmas comes because we were, and are, in dire need of it.

Many are acquainted with the purported message of the celebration: that of joy in the coming of the Savior. One may pertinently ask: how can one feel that joy when the above circumstances instill uncertainty and trepidation instead? Indeed, how can one experience the joy of the Savior's coming when one's heart is overcome by grief, by hopelessness, by fear?

Christmas came when the very conditions above were present. Christ came during the moments when fear and hopelessness reigned in the hearts of those who waited for Him. God became flesh, entered human history, when the experience of joy was most difficult.

Our circumstances are thus not so different. Christmas comes this year, and the remembrance of His coming brings joy. Not because there is material prosperity. Not because there are bright lights and gleaming adornments. And not even because there is "Santa Claus." Christmas brings joy because we remember God's Love coming to be with us, we remember God's Love becoming most present to us by sharing in who and what we are.

What does this remembrance of joy offer in the face of a volcanic eruption, the greed of powerful but small-hearted individuals, the despair of the weak, the grief of the bereaved? It offers consolation beyond mere sentiment. Christmas offers the profound consolation that God's Love is here, now.

Happy Christmas to all!