What does Jesus want for Christmas?

Christmas is gift giving time in celebration of the birthday of Jesus who gave us His own life as a gift . It is the time when we receive and give gifts to each other with the idea of meeting that common expectation best expressed in many popular Christmas songs containing the line: " All I want for Christmas is".At this time of the year almost everybody, children and even adults hope to finally get what they wish for or to receive the gifts they need most.Givers are most concerned that their gifts are appreciated as the recipients are eager and hopeful that whoever send them gifts know what they want.Nothing really wrong with such sentiments and practices as they are but manifestations of the love and care taught by the birthday celebrant Himself.Except that in our gift giving frenzy we forget or tend to overlook what Jesus wants on His birthday.Do we know what Jesus wants for Christmas? And have we in this nation given them to Him?

Jesus came to earth and was born two thousand and two years ago to show how God loves us,that God only wants what is good for us. Hence, what Jesus wants for His birthday is for our country and our people, and for all the people in the world, to have peace, prosperity, health and happiness. The Filipino people, sad to say, has not given Jesus what He wants on His birthday up to now.

We have not given Jesus what He wants for Christmas because we have not gotten rid of our crab mentality,of our lack of discipline, of our kanya-kanya attitude.Envy and greed still predominate in our society as we continue to place our selfish interests over and above the common good.We have not gotten rid of the urge to accumulate more than what we need as we try to satisfy our insatiable wants. So the rich piles up more riches as the poor continue their descent into the almost unbearable pit of squalor and hunger.

We have not given Jesus what He wants for His birthday because we have forgotten to look back where we came from so we can cherish and preserve the precious heritage left by our ancestors that gives us our own identity as a nation, and the noble, edifying values that make us spiritually strong and morally upright, like love of God and Country, respect and obedience to the elders and those in authorities, honesty and truthfulness,industry and frugality and the courage and conviction to stand up for truth and justice.

We have not given Jesus what He wants for Christmas up to now because our politicians continue to promote their own interests and to indulge in politics without principles as they try to hold the reins of power at all cost and wield influence over the people thru patronage and popularity, money and political machinery. Our country remains under the throes of politics where access to opportunity for public service is not available to all those qualified because public office has become an expensive commodity worth investing a lot of money for as the return on investment is not on its salaries and emoluments but on filthy lucre derived from graft and corruption.

We have not given Jesus what He wants for Christmas because our media continue to exploit and give undue publicity to negative events, scandalous circumstances, unverified and ugly rumors, immoral acts and unethical conducts and even celluloid feats that have detrimental effects in the lives of our people. In accentuating the bad news over the good news, media have glamourized ignoble, ignominious and trivial acts and conducts, brought fame and celebrity status to grafters, law violators, and even tinseltown personalities thus making them "winnable" in our elections.The elective positions in our government are thus getting filled up with persons whose main qualifications are popularity and name recall if not wealth and powerful political support.

We have not given Jesus what He wants for Christmas because we still conduct business without morality where the primary, and sometimes only, motive is profit, and more profit.Our businesses are still operated by businessmen without any social conscience as they treat workers and employees like mere objects for the production of goods and services in their trade and commerce,not as human beings to share in their surplus earnings.

Until we have given Jesus what He wants for His birthday, our Christmas celebration will never be really merry and bright.

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