As midnight masses concluded from Kyiv to Karachi, and families worldwide gathered around feasts and flickering lights, the familiar rituals of Christmas unfolded once more.
Yet, beneath the global glow of traditions lies a profound and pressing challenge, one that feels especially acute in a fractured world.
For many, the season is a whirlwind of travel, commerce, and merriment, a welcome respite from routine. But at its heart, the Christmas story issues a radical, countercultural invitation: to bridge distances. It celebrates a God who traversed the ultimate boundary between divine and human, appearing not in grandeur, but in the vulnerability of a child. This act, Christians believe, calls humanity to a corresponding movement, to cross divides of ethnicity, race, religion, and social status.
This year, that call for reconciliation echoes with particular urgency in Nigeria. The festive season arrives amid a climate where the consequences of mismanaged diversity have reached what many describe as a frightening intensity.
Social and political fractures have deepened, evoking for some a grim sense of déjà vu reminiscent of the period from 1966 to 1970. That era, ignited by regional factions within the military, devolved into a morally reprehensible carnage, a thoroughly avoidable war that cost countless innocent lives and scarred the national psyche.
Today, the distances are not measured in miles between front lines, but in suspicion between communities, in the rhetoric of division, and in the failure to forge a shared future.
The Christmas message, however, insists that these chasms are not permanent. The symbolism of the season, of journeying, of gathering, of offering gifts is a blueprint for peacebuilding. It challenges the familiar assumption that we are doomed to repeat the cycles of conflict and separation.
The real religious significance of Christmas, therefore, provokes more than sober reflection; it demands courageous action. It asks Nigerians, and all people of goodwill, to move beyond mere celebration towards active bridge-building. It is a season to consciously traverse the boundaries we have built or inherited, to seek out the stranger, and to recognize a shared humanity in the face of deepening divides.
As the world marks the birth of a child said to be “God with us,” the enduring question remains: Do we have the will to be with each other? The hope of Christmas is that the answer, however daunting the path, can still be yes.
Merry Christmas!
