With the approach of Christmas, last Tuesday’s commentary was looking for a way back from all the hate-filled turmoil of 2022. I asked, what one essential quality have Americans depended on to help heal the nation’s pain?

Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky answered it for me.

“Ladies and gentlemen — ladies and gentlemen, Americans, in two days we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe candlelit. Not because it’s more romantic, no, but because there will not be, there will be no electricity. Millions won’t have neither heating nor running water. All of these will be the result of Russian missile and drone attacks on our energy infrastructure.

“But we do not complain. We do not judge and compare whose life is easier. Your well-being is the product of your national security; the result of your struggle for independence and your many victories. We, Ukrainians, will also go through our war of independence and freedom with dignity and success.

“We’ll celebrate Christmas. Celebrate Christmas and, even if there is no electricity, the light of our faith in ourselves will not be put out.”

Faith is the one indispensable quality that has sparked Americans to change from division to one indivisible nation. Faith helps us push through any and all obstacles while protecting and defending our way of life. We cannot begin to heal ourselves without recommitting and reengaging in the passion, presence, and persistence of who we are as a nation: a light for democracy around the world.

Throughout times of hopelessness, America has survived and so will Ukraine.

I will return on New Year’s Eve.