Christmas is the story of a God who is determined to find a way to the hearts of his people. In the birth of Jesus, which the season celebrates, God reached out in time to heal and transform humanity and he continues to do so today, even in the midst of wars and acts of genocide abroad and in the grip of violent crime here at home and in other parts of the Caribbean.

“His imagination is inexhaustible,” said Pope Benedict XVI recently, as he spoke to the bishops of Switzerland about the creative power and the untiring nature of God who is love.

God always failed initially, said the Pope, because of the freedom he let exist – the freedom to say “no”. But “God never fails,” he continued. “With every human ‘no’ a new dimension of his love is bestowed and he finds a new and greater way to bring about his ‘yes’” to human existence, history and creation in general.

God’s creative power is greater than our stubbornness and sin. In the words of the Gospel for Christmas Day, the life of Christ, which is the light for all peoples, shines in the dark and “the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

The news that dominates the traditional print and electronic media gives the impression that the negatives far outweigh the positives. Often the conventional media’s combative stance and reporting that shows a preference for “two-ness” (as if there are only two sides to every issue) veil the stories of people who choose to grapple with reconciliation and forgiveness and the ones of true heroes, men and women who, outside of the limelight, work selflessly in various fields for the development of the society.

The situation may be somewhat different in the new media that have come with the Internet. Online news services which allow for the practice of “citizen journalism” and its antecedent, the blog are often witnesses to hope and have created an environment in which more and more people can contribute, participate and access information that can improve the circumstances of their lives.

Limits of good journalism

Pope Benedict, in his address to the Swiss bishops, went on to state that society’s sea of problems could not be solved unless God was put at the centre, “if God does not become once again visible to the world, if he does not become the determining factor in our lives and also enters the world in a decisive way through us”.

Archbishop Edward Gilbert was echoing these sentiments on December 8 at the Cathedral when during the Mass celebrating Mary’s Immaculate Conception, he challenged the faithful to resist “the attempt to take God off the table”. 

This task is, first of all, the responsibility of the Church but the media’s role in it is of great significance. To make evident the good in which members of the society are engaged, to assist in clearing a path for those who work for peace is not to reach beyond the limits of good journalism, as some would suggest. To tell stories of true development is to describe how God has become incarnate among us and, importantly, to create a space for God.

The Christmas Day Gospel again recalls that Jesus Christ the true light of the world came into a world that generally did not accept him but that, where he was accepted, he gave unbelievable power to become “children of God” – to share in his life.

Christmas must remind us that his offer still stands. It is the power present in the Holy Spirit that is at work among us now – the only way by which lasting peace will come to the world and creation be renewed.