With violence, hate crimes, and assaults against Muslims in America reaching some of their highest levels historically according to the FBI, my wife and I did not know how to respond. We seem too small and weak to do anything against the tidal wave of hatred and suspicion on all sides. But we have also learned from Fr. Luigi Giussani to always begin with a single human person. We have learned from him that "the Other" is a good for us and part of how the Mystery reveals Himself.

Motivated by this education my wife and I contacted a friend of ours who runs a Christian-Muslim friendship organization, in which Christians invite Muslim families for dinner during the Christmas season and Muslims invite Christians to their home during Ramadan.

Last night we hosted a beautiful Turkish-Muslim couple and their two young children at our home. When it was time to light our Advent wreath and say grace, I prayed to "the God of Abraham, recognized by Jesus and the Prophet Mohammed, for the unity and friendship of all believers." After the prayer the father was happily excited and said: "Yes! We have the same God."

At another moment I asked him why they had come to the United States (from Ankara). He told me he did not want his children to grow up with the mentality that "some people are just good, other people just bad." He wanted them to grow up knowing that wasn't true and to be "international." When I asked where he learned that, he said: "I learned that coming to the United States for graduate school in my early twenties." I was amazed by how profoundly different the life of this Muslim family was than the one presented in the rhetoric and language of growing hatred.

Having eaten together, made drawings with the kids, heard about the political situation in Turkey and life as an immigrant in LA, we were all happy. The father of the family looked over at me and asked: "Did you know we celebrate December 25 too?", he had a big smile on his face. I shook my head. No, I didn't know that. "Yes!" he laughed. "That is the day my wife and I were married. So we are celebrating and happy on the 25th of December just like you!"