YULE-PEACE, a custom of the Scandinavians ranging from Christmas-eve to Epiphany whereby old quarrels are adjusted. [“Christmas Throughout Christendom,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. XLVI, No. 272, January 1873] But how can old feuds be forgotten?
For instance, the Palawan Massacre: “On December 14, 1944, Japanese soldiers forced 150 American prisoners of war at a compound on Palawan into an air-raid shelter. Then they doused them with gasoline and threw in a match.” [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bataan-masaharu-homma-and-japanese-atrocities/]
It was still World War II, which in nine months would conclude. But more heartbreaks remained in the offing, even during Yuletide: “Today as I walked downtown, I saw a haggard, skeletal figure, dressed in rags, steadying his weak body at the iron gates of Jap residence while begging for food. Near a restaurant in Avenida Rizal, there was a young woman lying on the dust-covered pavement and death froze her hands in an extended, pleading, gesture. In the slums of Sampaloc, five little girls sat on the sidewalks, thin, gaunt, dirty, begging all passers-by for ‘rice, please, rice.’ I saw an old man with a semi-crazed look in his eyes searching a garbage can for food. I also saw a Jap truck filled with sacks of rice guarded by soldiers with fixed bayonets. Only happy note of the day were leaflets dropped by American planes yesterday: ‘The Commander-in-Chief, the officers and the men of the American forces of Liberation in the Pacific wish their gallant allies, the People of the Philippines, all the blessings of Christmas, and the realization of their fervent hopes for the New Year.’Merry Christmas.” [Diary of Felipe Buencamino III, December 26, 1944] [https://philippinediaryproject.com/1944/12/26/december-26-1944-3/]
“Dec. 24th–Today, to keep Dorita & the children alive, I purchased from a profiteer 2 lbs margarine. 20 oz. Jam, 1/2 kilo sugar, 1/2 lb honey, & for Dorita 3 3/4 oz coffee–The profiteer charged me $500 (!!) payable after the war–Frightful! But I cannot see them starve–” [Diary of Albert E. Holland, Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila, December 24-25, 1944]
In such difficult times, people’s faith are sorely tested, thus, they turn to prayer: “Almighty and most merciful Father we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have to contend. Grant us fair weather for battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.” — Chaplain James H. O’Neill[https://americanmilitarynews.com/2019/12/heres-gen-george-pattons-1944-christmas-message-to-troops-in-world-war-ii/]
And to papal missives: “For the sixth time since the opening of the dreadful war, the Christmas liturgy again hails with these words redolent of peaceful serenity, the coming into our midst of God, Our Savior…beneath the sinister lightning of the war that encompasses them, in the blazing heat of the furnace that imprisons them, the peoples have, as it were, awakened from a long torpor. They have assumed, in relation to the state and those who govern, a new attitude—one that questions, criticizes, distrusts. Taught by bitter experience, they are more aggressive in opposing the concentration of dictatorial power that cannot be censured or touched, and call for a system of government more in keeping with the dignity and liberty of the citizens.”
“We were anxious, Beloved Sons and Daughters, to take the occasion of Christmastide to point out along what lines a democracy befitting human dignity can, in harmony with the law of nature and the designs of God as manifested in Revelation, secure happy results.” [Pope Pius XII, 1944 Christmas Message, Addressed to the People of the Entire World on the Subject of Democracy and a Lasting Peace] [https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/1944-christmas-message-8963]
And to advice columnists: “No one can take the ache of loss or the gnawing of anxiety out of their heart, but everyone will find that the effort to simulate something of the usual Christmas joy, will bring its own reward. The religious side of Christmas will perhaps bring more healing to sad hearts than can any other time of the year, for this is the time when we remember to celebrate the coming to the world of a symbol. The life of Christ is the symbol of the perfect kind of love, the love which should rule the world. It is also the symbol for which all good men from time immemorial have given their lives. Men rarely fight and die for an individual benefit. It is usually because of loyalty to a group or a nation, and perhaps it is always in the hope that something better will come out of their sacrifice. That is, after all, the whole story of Christ’s life, something better was to come out of His sacrifice for mankind.” [Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day, December 25, 1944”]
We salute the people who struggled for faith, family and fairness 80 years ago and re-breathe their prayer: “We thank thee, Lord, for thy protection. I haven’t said that since I was a child, Lord, but today — on thy day, Isay it once more. And this time, more than any other, these thanks come from the heart. Not so much for the Christmas dinner served to us here in this orchard in Belgium, or on a rain-soaked plain on Leyte island, or in Italy, or on a ship at sea. But more, Lord, for the richer food that a blessed memory serves us; the food of recollection — of other, better christmas days…” [https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/throwback-thursday-a-soldiers-prayer-on-christmas-day-from-1944/20459]
