Hugo Herrera 🇺🇦🇺🇦 💙

Going to @RAFBrizeNorton to film my New Year Message, I met servicemen and women there who embody the spirit of service, following the example of Jesus who “came not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). Watch on @BBCOne, 12:55pm, New Year’s Day bbc.in/3RSt3qt

We often wish people a ‘Happy Christmas!’ But joy is not quite the same as happiness. Happiness tends to be our response to something good happening. It’s often fleeting. Sometimes our pursuit of it causes us more pain than happiness. And when it’s gone, we can feel flat and bereft. Joy, however, is an inner feeling. The Dutch Catholic priest Henri Nouwen said that: ‘Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.’ When we look around the world, there is much that makes us unhappy. And with God by our side, we can truly face the suffering and pain so many are experiencing – perhaps we ourselves are going through. But as we lift our heads to Christmas, when God takes flesh and comes among us, and enters into a new way of relating with us, we might realise something else. Joy at Christmas is about being with others, about joining with them in whatever they are going through, even their suffering, walking with them in their pain, and sharing in their good times. Joy is about loving and being loved. As we approach Christmas, we remember that God loves us so much that he came to be with us. He teaches us how to love each other. And so we have hope — hope that nothing on this Earth can take away from us, for it is given by God.