Which brings to mind, this Christmastide, two extraordinary witnesses to the King born in Bethlehem of Judaea “when Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Luke 2:2).
Jimmy Lai is in his fourth year of solitary confinement in a Hong Kong prison, unjustly prosecuted for defending the human rights whose deepest roots lie in what the Bible teaches about human dignity. That this truth-teller terrifies the Hong Kong authorities—beholden to the Beijing regime with which the Vatican shamefully plays “Let’s Make a Deal”—is manifest in the chains Jimmy wears when brought out in public, in the over-the-top police presence at his Stalinesque show-trial, and in the rabid response of Hong Kong’s government to any protest on his behalf. Some time ago, Jimmy sent me a Crucifixion scene he had sketched in his cell, using colored pencil on ruled paper. Sustained like Thomas More by his Catholic faith, Jimmy Lai knows that Christmas and the Cross are entwined—and lead to Easter and glory.
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