Christmas Message 2009
“Today… a Savior has been born to you; … You will find a baby… lying in a manger." Luke 2: 11-12
We are in the festive season. Life is a continum of celebrations. We move from one celebration to another. These jubilant festivals are meant to give a lasting joy in the life of everyone. The celebration of life is integrally related to our relationship with God, fellow human beings and nature.
The Season of Christmas often tempts us to celebrate by buying and accumulating material things for our enjoyment. Our celebrations are governed by the market culture and the spirit of consumerism. To experience a real celebration, it is necessary for us to look into the Bible and the person of Jesus to recapture the real spirit of Christmas.
Christmas is the celebration of the transcendent God entering history out of love, and identifying with the humankind by incarnating as a baby. It is an event of great joy to all humankind. St. Luke narrates it through the words of an angel who spoke to the shepherds in the fields: “Do not be afraid: I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”'(Luke 2: 10). As we celebrate Christmas, year after year, let us remember the relevance and meaning of incarnation where we realise that God is not far away but is very much in our midst, filling us with heavenly joy and building us with His love. Mother Teresa incarnated in human situations through her phenomenal compassion for the less fortunate fellow beings, through the kindness in her heart, the gentleness in her eyes and the human touch of her hands. She celebrated Christmas every day with every one. She incarnated in the lives of the people in the slums of Calcutta and elsewhere to become known as the Saint Of The Gutters, and celebrated a life of spontaneous love as she extended her arms towards thousands of destitutes, inumerous orphans, and all who were removed as the unwanted and uncared section of society. This is the challenge before the present Church and Christian Community - to grow in the spirit of incarnation by identifying with the less privileged and marginalised to impart tidings of great joy. Though there were kings, prophets, priests and the scribes with their powers and principalities, it was to the shepherds who were lying somewhere in the fields that the angels appeared to communicate the good news of great joy. Christmas is God coming down to assume humanness with its strengths and weaknesses.
As we read in Luke 2:7, “Mary gave birth to her first born, a Son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger”. This child is ordinary, dependent and yearning to grow. The description of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is very ordinary and simple when compared to the descriptions in other Gospels. The parents are ordinary people, and they were forced to go to Bethlehem by the Roman empire. One cannot imagine something like this hapenning in North America or Europe where a pregnant lady like Mary is forced to travel a long distance at a time when she is ready for the birth of a child. Such a journey could be detrimental both to the mother and the child. Think of the agony, brokeness and pain of a loving husband as he becomes helpless at the time of child birth and in an unfamiliar surrounding. Yet, this incident shows that the Creator God does not abandon His creations in their state of brokenness, but that He takes the form of a vulnerable child to show the world His power to redeem His creation. That is the story of the child in the manger in Bethlehem. Whenever a child is born, making his/her truimphant entry into this world, taking the first breath and letting out a sharp cry, it should be a reminder that the message of Christmas with life and hope is given to the world through a baby Jesus, and that God in Christ is still active in the gift of redemption.
The Gospel of Matthew, narrates Christmas, with the history of life denying celebration by the Roman emperor. A lot of innocent lives were destroyed when King Herod was disturbed in hearing that a King is born (Matt 2). The furious king gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old or less (Matt 2:16). Joseph and Mary guarded their infant by fleeing with him to Egypt; another journey to a foreign land, soon after his birth. One may wonder, “Is life worth living like this?” Deep down in the hearts of all human beings, there is an yearning to grow and live life with dignity – not to run and hide and live in fear. How many lives are taken away because of a culture that distributes guns to the wrong hands, or because of petty rivalry, or terrorism or wars fought in the name of world policing? How many lives are terminated because they are of a particular gender? Amongst all these atrocities, each new day beckons us to celebrate all forms of life on earth. Life is a gift from God to be lived daily with the right discernment for choosing that which is good, just and noble.
St. Luke reminds us that Mary the mother “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2: 19). Through their lives, Mary and Joseph paid a price and faced many challenges, so that the rest of humanity could celebrate Christmas - the good news of great joy. For instance, Mary committed her life at the annunciation, Joseph obeyed God in accepting the pregnant Mary, Joseph and Mary travelled with the baby Jesus to Bethlehem and subsequently to Egypt. These were all milestones in their lives that found its culmination on the Cross of Christ. This spiritual journey is portrayed as a 'Sword piercing one's Soul' (Luke 2: 35). All the Christmas celebrations should be Christ centered with the Cross at the heart of it. It should be a celebration of “Salvation” (Matt 1: 21).
The Celebration of Christmas initiated by the Church has to transfer rays of hope to the thousands of hopeless and helpless people around us. In today's world, the Church is encountering varying human situations where people are denied the freedom to be themselves, and have the space in our social systems to build their lives up.
The word is to become flesh and make a dwelling in our inhabited world. That is Christmas.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
May the worship services and all celebrations of Christmas help us to treasure the Word of God and ponder them in our hearts.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and a Joyful New Year!
Mar Theodosius