Craig Cannonier’s Christmas Message

Merry Christmas Bermuda!

I hope this holiday season finds you well and with your loved ones.

This is such a special time of year. We spend most of our days trying to make ends meet; getting jobs done, moving about, cleaning up… There seems never enough time to spend with the people who matter most in our lives.

Christmas gives us that time. It allows us to stop, exhale and look around to see and appreciate what we have to be thankful for – our families, our faith, our friends, our community and our country.

Christmas helps to remind us of what is important. It also makes us mindful that we can do more to show our appreciation to the people who shape our lives.

I urge you to take advantage of this quiet time to reach out to your sister, your son, your father, your mother, your wife, your husband, your friends, your colleagues and your fellow Bermudians. Acknowledge them. Tell them they count. Tell them you love them. Show them your support.

Do these things and your loved ones, your neighbours, people in the street will reply in kind. Reach out and your life will be enriched.

Christmas is the celebration of life and hope. It is the celebration of a child born so that we may live by His good example.

Jesus taught us to look after one another. He taught us forgiveness. He taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves. He taught us to love our enemies. He taught us to reach out, with kindness, generosity and love.

His teachings are the foundation of a good and better life; they are the building blocks of a society that works for one and all. We know these teachings and know in our hearts that we can do more to live up to them.

In Bermuda today, there is a pressing need to apply the teachings of Christ.

Many of our fellow Bermudians are struggling. They have lost their jobs, or their paycheques are no longer enough. They live each day with anxiety and uncertainty; they are clinging to hope.

There are also many thousands of Bermudians who still have their jobs, who are getting the same paycheque. For them, life is good; there are presents under the tree and a turkey on the table.

When I see these two Bermudas, Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan comes to mind: There was a man in need. He’d been robbed, stripped, beaten and left for dead by the roadside. He was ignored by passersby. The Good Samaritan saw the man, bound his wounds, took him to an inn and made sure he was cared for.

Jesus told this parable to illustrate that we are all neighbours, and that we should care for anyone in need.

Bermuda needs its Good Samaritans to step forward.

Church groups, charities and individuals have already set the pace with food and toy drives and community meals to feed families and help parents get presents under the tree. These are good deeds and they will help families this Christmas Day, but we can do more.

Bermuda will not stop needing after the holidays.

It is my hope that Bermudians who are not already helping out will commit this Christmas Day to doing so in the weeks and months ahead.

Think of it not just as an opportunity to help fellow Bermudians in a real way, but also as an opportunity to build a better Bermuda – a Bermuda built on a foundation of compassion, where people need not suffer alone, where they can feel the embrace of a caring community; a Bermuda in which we are all neighbours, counting on each other.

Let us make this a Christmas of hope and charity. We need hope to dream but we need charity to make it happen. As Paul the Apostle said: “If I have not charity, I am nothing.”

Let us start building Bermuda together. It can start this Christmas Day, with your commitment to helping people in need. Let everyone understand the possibilities of a better Bermuda.

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