The Tribune

THE Rt Rev Laish Boyd, Bishop of the Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, has called on Bahamians to combat pain with love and genuinely seek what is best for the good of others this Christmas.

In his annual message to commemorate the Yuletide season, Bishop Boyd said while the world is cruel, heartless and hateful, as our brother’s keeper we should practice putting the wellbeing of others before our own - both to those that we know and to strangers who we meet.

“Love happens when the other person’s happiness is more important than our own,” he wrote. “This is what real love is whether it is romantic, between parent and child, between siblings, relatives, friends or neighbours. Each of us is experiencing or has experienced one or more of these. Selfishness hurts the other person. Love only wants what is best for the other.

“Some of us may not want to hear about or to think about love, especially if we have been hurt by others, betrayed or disappointed by some person in one of the above categories.

“However, love, ie genuine concern, when people give to us or care for us unselfishly, is still the most powerful force in the whole world.”

He said if pain and disappointment are not enough, every year Christmas seems to become more busy, more bustling, more material and commercialised and even more socially demanding.

These elements, Bishop Boyd said, are not all bad in themselves because each has its place and value when kept within its proper bounds.

However, trying to keep up with it makes it harder and harder to stay focused on the real meaning of the season, he said. They actually give competition to God and to spiritual focus and to peace and to peace of mind.

“Notwithstanding, the call to love continues to go out to all of us because nothing else is going to satisfy. God gave His Son, Jesus, to the world because “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). Love is still the only way to heal the pain and to fill the emptiness in our souls and in our world,” Bishop Boyd said.