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BY MIGUEL MAIRENA

Looking for something to eat, that instinct that human beings have to survive, is strong among the Nicaraguan people. We see it daily in the children and adults who sift through the trash searching for food at the dump and on our street. We see it every Dec. 7, at the beginning of Advent with the celebration of 'Purisima,' the conception of Jesus? mother, Mary.

Family groups, mainly women and children from poor families, go house to house to collect goodies from better-off families who host a Purisima with a beautiful alter to the Virgin Mary and goodies to hand out, like sugar cane, oranges and candy (sort of like trick or treating). Along with the fun of singing to the Virgin, together with family and friends, it is also a way to get a bit of food.

In reality, most of the people who go house to house are the disenfranchised, those for whom we struggle. We try to follow Jesus? example and teaching: that the poor should have life and life in abundance (John 10: 10), and not just existence.

'Life in abundance' is about more than just food. It?s about everything that human beings require: education, health care, housing, clothes and work that pays well enough to obtain the daily necessities of life.

Those who already have life in abundance are not seen at activities like the Purisima. If they do celebrate it, they invite selected guests from their own class and they do not do it to get something material, but to try to obtain the forgiveness that Jesus offers when we change and give what we have accumulated to the poorest.

Only, this last part is what we usually don?t do, and Jesus said it: It?s the most difficult ? 'it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for one of these to enter the reign of God' (Matthew 19: 24).

Our historic moment is no different than the historic moment when the Messiah arrived more than 2,000 years ago. The empire then pillaged the riches of the peoples within its reach.

Moreover, the empire oppressed, killed and disappeared their peoples and Jesus was not an exception, but he was the beginning of the end of that empire. But new empires have been born using the figure of the Messiah, not to liberate the nations, but to indoctrinate and oppress the people in the name of the one who came to save us, not to oppress us.

What we are left with is hope to follow the road, although narrow and difficult. We know that it is the right road and that future generations will know that each Christmas a Messiah continues to be born in each one of us to continue the search and struggle for the building of the reign of God, 

• where peace reigns as the fruit of justice, 
• where the words 'poor' and 'rich' exist no more,
• where love is not just another word, but the word that makes us feel the harmony with God and with each and every human being.

Miguel Mairena, is a conference missionary based in Nicaragua.