Santa Clara University

Christmas Letter 1999

Dear Members of the University Community,

Each of us awaits the new millennium with different expectations and hopes. Some on the religious fringe believe the predictions of Revelations will be fulfilled with God permitting natural and human disasters to hit our world as never before. Already, some use the earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan, the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the conflict in Kosovo and Chechnya as signs of a forthcoming apocalyptic Armageddon.

Wiser people foresee the millennium as a time for us to commit ourselves anew to bringing a fuller measure of peace and hope, justice and love to the human community. Jesus calls Christians to this beautiful and inspiring vision for all people, as Isaiah did earlier with the ancient Israelites:

The poetic image of the smooth highway for God will also be ours when we help awaken God's presence and life deep down in every person and in our communities. Isaiah's valleys to be filled are not about geological crevices in the earth, but about people who suffer, who are lonely and neglected, and whose lives are empty of meaning. It is whenever street children are forgotten by their families and society or the single mother is left without the means to provide food and shelter for her child or when we fail to show concern for the student who is struggling with her or his relationship with a parent or teacher or other student. When we seek to lift others out of the deep valleys of life, we too will speak tenderly and give comfort to God's people.

When Isaiah refers to every mountain and hill being made low, he is not talking about a major excavation project but rather breaking down the barriers that separate us from each other. Whatever prevents us from seeing every person we meet as our sister or brother, hinders the realization of Isaiah's inclusive vision. But by embracing diversity of people and ideas, we will build a richer community where all of us can see the glory of God fully shining in every person regardless of ethnic or cultural backgrounds, age, gender, or religious beliefs, be they faculty, staff, student, parent, alumnus or visitor to our community.

Isaiah, in predicting that the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain, is not talking about fixing potholes in the freeways, but how we treat each other. Rough are the roads whenever a thoughtless remark is left unreconciled. Or, when our indifference makes us forget the more than one million U.S. citizens living on city streets without shelter or food or the students or staff members who feel uncomfortable at Santa Clara because they come from a poor family. Speaking kind words to those we meet, treating others with respect, and seeing each person as an equal means all people will be the glory of God together.

The prophetic promise of comfort, revealing a compassionate and welcoming God for all people, means we are all in this together, all called to the same vision of community. God does not act in some distant time or place, but now through us. My prayer during this holy season is that the new millennium will be a time when the glory of God is made visible in our reconciling of differences, in our calling each other sister or brother, in our learning to respect the culture of all whose religion or skin color is different from our own, and in our being compassionate and generous with all, as God is with us. Then, through us, the glory of God shall be revealed and we will all see it together.

I pray the blessing of God on you and your family, and may your pathways be smooth and straight during this holiday season and throughout this very special new year.

Paul Locatelli, S.J.

President