There is a time for everything, the Ecclesiastes says, a time to love, a time to hate. Christmas is of course a time to love. What else could it be when Love himself came into this world on that day? It is a love from the heart of the Divine who for millennia longed to stretch out his hands to man doomed by the sin of his forebears. For millennia too man pined for a savior as he blundered though the years in a state only a notch better than beasts. Mouthed by prophets, his cry reverberated through the ages, but this faded away like the wind in the barren landscape of his soul.
Finally, rejoice! sang the angelic hosts, for "today a Savior has been born to you in David's town, he is the Messiah and the Lord." Love took a human form and lived among men. And men learned to love. With love man transformed himself. Light shone in his heart and for the first time he realized that he was more than a fixture of bones and flesh and that his destiny was more than a cavity in the rocks. For the first time too he came face to face with a new reality: He is the child of God. What joy! A child of the Lord of lords, of the King of kings! What more could he ask for? What is there to worry about?
At the Nativity therefore two were born: The Savior and the saved. Hence, even as man rejoices for the coming of the Lord, he rejoices too over his new-found self-hood. Joy is therefore the mood of the season. It is joy flowing freely from a heart freed from the bondage of sin, the same the shepherds felt when they paid homage to the Holy Child the night he was born. It was the joy of the three kings when they brought their gifts to the Holy Family by the manger.
From a simple, soulful joy, this has morphed in today's world into a joy of the secular kinds where sense fulfillment is the focus. From the blaze of décor lights to the haunting strains of carols, from partying to gift-giving man recalls Christmas year after year frugally or abundantly as the pocket dictates.
Nothing wrong with these, actually, as long as the heart remains moored in the true import of the season. For has Jesus not said that he had come to give man life and have it abundantly? Surely, God must be happy to see his creation glorying on the birthday of His son. Surely, godliness and joyousness must be bedfellows in the human heart. "Be cheerful, always cheerful. It is for those to be sad who do not consider themselves to be sons of God," says modern-day saint Josemaria Escriva.
Yet in the course of all his cheerfulness something gets haywire somewhere. For when man gets crazy with the goodies of the world he tends to forget where he came from. In fact, he tends to forget who really he is. Armed with high-end technology and cutting-edge science know-how, he begins to doubt his supernatural destiny. Thoughts of God recedes into the realm of an after-thought. Who needs God when he can survive by himself?
For decades man bombarded the atmosphere with the poison of his creation. Greed beclouds his conscience - who cares about ozone layers and climate change? Now the ice realms are melting. Islands are getting submerged. Now killer floods devastate one area after another, destroying lives and livelihood. Now famine stalks vast regions as drought holds sway. Nature has gone awry and things are not what they used to be. Are the days of man numbered?
They are, unless he regains his sanity and returns to the arms of the Father. Too long has he kept himself alienated from His embrace. Too long his suffering, too long His watch for his return.
Christmas could be a good time for man to tread back to the vineyard of His Father. The road is long, it's true, for he has strayed far, far from the domain of the good and the true. The way is dark too and danger lurks on the sides. But if he perseveres and does not lose hope he could still make it. Henry Cardinal Newman felt the strain of such journey and so he prayed: "Lead kindly Light/ Amidst the encircling gloom,/ Lead thou me on,? The night is dark and I am far from home…"
Man's journey therefore should start right from the doorstep of the stable where Christ was born. Then it should lead him to Cana, then to the river Jordan, then to the Transfiguration, to the Last Supper and finally, to Calvary.
It's a long journey and a challenging one. It's a violent journey too for man's worth is such that no less than the blood of the Son of Man must be shed for ransom.
Thinking of this at Christmastime seems to spoil the fun. But Christmas and Jesus cannot be set apart. Without Jesus Christmas becomes a mere bacchanalian festival fit for heretics and nonbelievers.
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