Nostalgia for a Happy Home

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, the Archbishop of Jakarta, receives representatives of Yudi Latif’s Love the Nation Society after Christmas Mass on Wednesday (25/12/2019) at Jakarta Cathedral in Central Jakarta. The congregation extended their welcome to members of the local interfaith community at the cathedral on Christmas Day.

Every Christmas and New Year, there is a longing to go “home”. It is not a sentimental craze but an existential call. Living things do indeed suffer from a kind of incurable disease to return to their original home or find a new one where hopes for the future can hatch and grow. It is called nostalgia, from the Greek words nostos (homesickness) and algos (pain).

After wandering for thousands of miles, turtles and birds return to their place of birth to lay their eggs in the place where their lives first began. For humans, the notion of returning home does not have to include returning to the same point on earth. To borrow a phrase from Shoshana Zuboff, "Home is a place where we can know and be known, love and be loved. The home is the ability to master, the warmth of the conversation, the closeness of relationships, the peace of the guesthouse, the space to develop, take shelter and hope."

Similarly, Christmas and New Year are transitional rites as a cushion for rebirth by pulling humans to "points of departure and return", a place to restore joy, love, the spirit of sharing and family unity. The happiness of living together starts with turning on the light of love, restoring the light of love to radiate beauty from within. If there is beauty in individuals, there is harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there is order in the life of the nation. If there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

KOMPAS/HARIS FIRDAUS

Members of the Christmas Mass committee of Pugeran Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ (GHKTY) in Yogyakarta, wear traditional Javanese attire on Christmas Eve (24/12/2019). Christmas Mass at GHKTY Pugeran was full of Javanese nuances, such as in the use of Javanese language to deliver the mass and traditional dances and gamelan performances during the service, as well as the committee members wearing Javanese dress.

The best home, as a verse in the Bible reminds us, is a house built with wisdom, upheld with understanding, each room filled with knowledge with a wealth of joy and glory – the Samaritan house of virtue whose door is always open with love for others. The best of Christmas is a Christmas that is expanded. Christmas is not Christmas without gifts. And no gift is more valuable than love. It is medicine for the sick, candles for darkness, cement for cracks and hope for deadlock.

When the sky is clouded by suspicion, torn social fabric is shredded by daggers of hate, widespread inequality is triggered by greed, the spirit of birth and the warmth of Christmas should not be merely a seasonal ritual for fellow believers but should pervade every niche of space and time. Every day is Christmas, every room is a house of love.

As Confucius said, family integrity is the foundation of national integrity. Our dream as a nation is to build a house of happiness for all people.

As Confucius said, family integrity is the foundation of national integrity. Our dream as a nation is to build a house of happiness for all people. Happiness together is realized when we get along, share sustenance – not how much is given but how much love enlivens the gift. We develop unity and justice based on the belief in the nature of "sincerity" (tendency to goodness), spiritualism, humanity, nationality, sovereignty and sociality. As a result, efforts to strengthen family homes must be simultaneous with efforts to strengthen the "national home" (Pancasila house).

In order to strengthen the "national home", we must get out of the politics of fear into the politics of hope. Therefore, a nation must move beyond the stages of anarchy, feudalism and apathy towards the creation of conscious public leaders and citizens. Sincere love will not waver just because of another expression of hatred. After all, the real opponent of love is not hatred but indifference. Hating can be an effect of loving. However, indifference is a sign of not caring and not appreciating because of the lack of love.

None of that should be foreign to us. And we are willing to reach them one by one, where necessary.

So, enliven love by not being ignorant of the survival of the nation. Bung Hatta reminded us, “Beautiful bays and beautiful lakes, high mountains and deep abyss, wild jungles and dark forests or quiet islands and deserted fields, all of them are part of the same homeland we love. None of that should be foreign to us. And we are willing to reach them one by one, where necessary."

In fulfilling the calling of the Mother Earth, the dignitaries bear greater responsibility (noblesse oblige). In this connection, Sjafruddin Prawiranegara reminded us, "If the people\'s leaders at a time can no longer work properly in the interests of their people, if the position or seat has become an objective and not a tool, then what will threaten our country is that democracy will sink in the coalition and then the coalition will be eaten by anarchy, and anarchy will be overcome by armed groups."

Love gets its fulfillment not on what it can get but on what it can give. To love something means to want it to live. "What I hope for from my son, have I set an example for him. What I hope for from my people, have I fulfilled their hopes," said Lao Tzu.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Yudi Latif

The test of love is proven by sacrifice, as Jesus was ready to sacrifice himself for the safety of the citizens of Earth. Whenever Christmas comes, it is time to recharge the batteries of love by reviving the soul of sacrifice, for the sake of the happiness of the family and beloved country.

The Prophet Muhammad echoed this suggestion by saying, "You will see believers in a temperament of mercy. Love one another and share the goodness with one another."

YUDI LATIF, Director of Pancasila School