Bishop Elbs’ thoughts on the turn of the year 2020/2021 – Vorarlberg –

2020: a special year is coming to an end. When it started, we had a lot of questions: What can we do about climate change? How should we deal with refugees in Europe? How can we solve the problems of the health sector? And much more.

Now, at the end of the year, these issues remain unresolved. And the media dominated them for the defining issue of Corona. I have heard many times in recent weeks that the pandemic has pushed these issues into the background. I think the opposite is true. Corona has by no means suppressed these themes, but has even made them more visible. Because the virus has highlighted several areas of socio-political problems that have been waiting for a solution for years. Since Corona has been in existence, we’ve been talking more about caring and what it takes to make this job more attractive. We talk about fair wages because we see that the professions that have turned out to be systemically important are by no means the best paid. We see how the weather breathes a sigh of relief if air traffic is reduced. We also need hatred, anti-Semitism and racism to be unleashed with violence. And we need to talk more intensively about education in the future. Because the effects and negative consequences that the months of distance learning will have for students can only be guessed at the moment. Corona acts as a fiery accelerator that causes burning problems in our society and around the world to flare up.

So maybe this year we realized more than usual that we celebrate Christmas in an unredeemed world. Then as now, Christmas is a story that takes place at night. Christ was converted, says St. Scripture, born in the night. It also reaches the nights of our life: the night of perplexity, despair, worry for the future. He made the nights of our lives a holy night. In the midst of this situation, the eternal word breaks into our history, into the light and darkness of our life. All these words that speak of Christmas do not want to tell us anything other than: God loves us so much that he even becomes a person and is very close to us.

It is good when, at the end of the old year and at the beginning of the new, we realize that God became man in many ways this year as well. He has the face of an old man who misses his relatives in the nursing home and smiles at the tired caregiver. He has the face of a doctor lovingly caring for a dying man. He has the face of a teacher who never tires of giving children a good future. He has the face of a supermarket salesman who, exhausted, works hour after hour. He has the face of a young man committed to preserving the climate. It is amazing and admirable what people do. Loneliness, fears, and worries cannot be removed from the world. But neither is humanity, empathy and tenderness.

All of these people have made a fresh start where they live and work. You have given joy where there is monotony. He has taken responsibility where indifference is rampant. They made possible the future where one withdraws with resignation. The turn of the year should also mark a new beginning, not just on the calendar. Let’s establish a new beginning of faith, hope, and drawing closer to one another. Let us work for peace in our world. Because the terrorist attack in Vienna reminded us again: peace is the deepest longing of all people. For us Christians, this longing is a constant command to seek peace.

The problems of the old year will also accompany us to the new. But it makes a difference, the better: we make a difference when we take these first steps trusting in the blessing and closeness of God. Because the child in the crib tells us at all times that the night does not last forever. The poverty of the manger also knows the song of the angels, the ray of light from the star, but above all the hope that comes to meet us in the child Jesus Christ.

I wish you a blessed new year from God.