Christmas is the feast that all look forward to. The whole world seems to join the Christians in commemorating an obscure and humble young Jewish maiden, Mary of Nazareth, giving birth to a child she named Jesus. The apostle and disciple of Jesus, Matthew and Luke wrote their gospels nearly seventy years after this birth. Luke wrote that humble shepherds of Bethlehem were given the joyful news that the long-promised Messiah, the redeemer of the people has been born for them in their midst in a humble stable.
Matthew wrote that wise men from the East came seeking the new born King of the Jews and recognized in him the Christ – the Anointed Redeemer – and worshipped him, offering gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew in his Gospel underlines the indifference of the Jews to Jesus. When they are informed of Jesus’ birth they remain indifferent whereas Jesus’ royal messiahship is recognized by Gentiles, the non-Jewish people who are the first to adore him. Luke’s Gospel says it is the poor Jewish shepherds who rejoiced at his birth and not the high priests and the powerful.
YOUNG MOTHER PONDERS
The evangelists seem to underline a universal paradigm that it is the wise and the humble who come to know the Messiah – the Christ, the Anointed One, the Saviour – who would identify himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. To the keen observer it is clear that the wise though indeed very knowledgeable and learned yet prudently seek guidance to a more wholesome knowledge. They are never arrogant and intimidatory because of their depth of knowledge. The humble shepherds have a simplicity and an uncanny lucidity, insight and wisdom that elude the sophisticated, the clever and the worldly-wise who go after snob appeal. They make their way to Bethlehem and see for themselves what has been made known to them. They find reason to rejoice discovering the truth of what had been told them: a child wrapped in swaddling-clothes lying in a manger. The story of the shepherds amaze everyone. Meanwhile, Mary the young mother treasures what she heard and reflects on them in her heart. Mary already had heard from God’s messenger Gabriel that the child to be born of her would be great and people would know him as the Son of the Most High, that he would inherit the throne of his ancestor King David and that his kingdom will last forever.
Her husband Joseph too had been told that this child will save the people and turn them away from wrong-doing and make them a righteous, God-fearing people faithful to his commandments. Now the shepherds too had made known some profound truths about the Child; it was what they heard from the heavenly messengers. Mary needed to ponder on the meaning and effect of her child’s birth the extraordinariness of which Gabriel had already told her. It was an amazing message and quite unexpected. Mary had simply believed what was communicated to her and consented to be the mother of Jesus by saying “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word” surrendering to the divine will not knowing fully the implications. (Refer to Gospel of St. Matthew Ch. 1 vv 26-38).
Wouldn’t every young mother who ponders while expecting and after the birth of a child think what her child would become? A mother who has two boys aged 20 and 15 is very happy and contented; during her pregnancy she had entrusted her children to God and prayed that they grow to be good and intelligent children faithful to the divine commandments. She continues to pray incessantly for her children and her husband and is thankful that God’s providence has surrounded them. And there are so many mothers like her.
EVALUATING WORLDLY REALITY
The very nature of the human being carries with it a desire to know, to seek the truth and to attain to a sagacity and a wisdom that penetrates and perceives the meaning, the reality and purpose of the world he finds himself in. Christ directs his hearers to open their minds to understand well the worldly reality of human beings and material resources, their intermingling and relatedness and gauge their connection and true value and measure and live in uncomplicated harmony: Look at the lilies of the field; Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matt. 6.29).
Jesus would state the meaning of his life in his reply to Pontius Pilate the Governor “I am a king; my kingdom is not of this world. I came to bear witness to the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth, listens to my voice (Cf Matt. 18.36-38).
A king reigns and in Jesus’ kingdom he invites people not only to acknowledge him as Lord and Master but also to become his friends, brothers and sisters, to be partakers and sharerers of his own divine sonship, to reign with him by being a royal people, a royal priesthood offering praise and thanksgiving to God and a holy people relating to one another as brothers and sisters and governed by the law of love.
As people beset by human frailty and wounded by big and small sins, all of us fail to be good, wholesome and totally perfect in our individuality; we do not become holy by our own effort alone. Jesus promises to relate to each and everyone of us and be unfailingly united to us and be with us if we freely choose him and acknowledge him and strive to do God’s will just as he did as Son of God. Then he invites us to be one with him and shows himself to be our Lord and God whose love is boundless.
GOD’S WILL, HEAVENLY-JOY ON EARTH
God’s will is that men may get to know and love God and one another, respect and honour one another, accord each person his human dignity and rights, equality and freedom and live as brothers and sisters cooperating and collaborating with one another to enhance everyone’s life without causing any diminishment or denigration. Jesus teaches his followers to act and live according to the will of God, so that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus wants us to live our earthly life sharing his way of love so that the happiness and joy of heaven may become a reality on earth. There are people who already experience this joy.
Various types of Leaders have had an opaque understanding of the short life on earth and have attempted to create and make of society a more perfect one. To do so they have used their power to kill and eliminate hordes of other human beings in order to conquer and subdue people and establish their own way and order of life.
Leaders and rulers have plundered the lands, properties and valuable belongings of others. They have tried to make affluence, possession of lands, houses and various other amenities and power over others according to their will and fancy the measure of the highest value and importance. Unrestrained and undisciplined pursuit of earthly riches have distorted the meaning and falsified the understanding of what life is about and sown the seeds of injustice. The evils of various discriminations in society have vitiated and impaired the due development and progress of human beings and whole nations. The pursuers of power and riches have been themselves blind to other dimensions of life and their transcendent values.
SHARING ABUNDANCE OF LIFE
It is to give a right understanding of riches that Jesus tells his disciples, “How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19.23-24). What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his life?” (Mark 8.36). Very often rich people are enslaved by their riches; they are not free.
They are not attracted by the goodness, nobility and the virtues of others; they are attracted or rather distracted by money, physical delight and gratification. Rather than possessing wealth the rich are possessed by their riches. The pleasures, even illicit and immoral pleasures that money can procure become the measure and end of life. Their riches dictate, subvert and overturn the human values by which they should live.
At Christmas the tradition of sharing enkindles afresh the recognition of our fraternity with the poor and disadvantaged. It strives to lessen to some extent the harm and defacement we have done to our own humanity. Christmas should bring all mankind to rethink the way and the values by which we should live our lives, rethink the way we relate to fellow human beings as we are all equal before God.
Christmas should make us rethink about our attitude to money and to our material possessions and how we dispose of our material resources and exercise power over others. Christmas should make us think of the way we bring a moment of joy and a measure of justice and peace to the lives of our fellow men. Genuine celebration of the birth of Christ should make our lives and that of our fellowmen truly more abundant and joyful than it is now.
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