In a country where Shintoism and Buddhism are nominally practiced, foreign migrants have kept the churches alive with their numbers and their faith in Japan.
There are not enough priests and religious sisters to minister to the spiritual needs of the hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Philippines, from Brazil, from Peru and from other countries.
There are more of those who do not have access to churches either because of distance or some other constraints. Hence, those who are able to hear mass at least once a week consider themselves blessed. Those who are able to have the rare opportunity to have a spiritual recollection are grateful for this added blessing, to have the recollection before Christmas, a rare bonus.
It is winter now in Japan, with temperatures dipping below 0 lately. Just like in the Philippines, the air is filled with Christmas music,lights, and decors.
“Pera lang ang kulang,” commented some Filipinos who have been in and out of steady work, given the continuing economic crisis as well as the continuing restoration of Japan after the 3/11 tsunami and earthquake.
Christmas season is also particularly difficult for many migrants. This is the time they realize how much they miss their families back home. This is the time that they pray that reunion time with their families will happen sooner.
Christmas also beckons to all to spend, to focus on the glitter, the commercial glow of the season. Hence, the unemployed, the undocumented migrants fell the double pinch of not being with their families as well as not having enough resources to buy what they want for themselves and for their families back home.
Hence, many welcomed the timing of the recollection last December 11. Thanks to Sr. Rose Remigio of Joso Church in Japan, a Japanese and 21 Filipinos were treated to a spiritual recollection last December 11.
The recollection was a good reminder about the essence of Christmas, about the essence of life, here and forever. It was a good time to be reminded that the core of this season is God , who because of His great unfathomable love for us, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us all. Christmas as love, Christmas as redemption, Christmas is never as superficial as the lights, the glitter, the beckon of material gifts and earthly feasts. Christmas is a gift, a blessing for us all.
As Jaypee wrote in the December 14 reading of the 2011 Living Water, “This Christmas season, may we stop and think of all the blessings, changes, and upgrades the Lord has done for us and our loved ones, and be grateful.”
Edward Hays, quoted in the same December 14 reading, wrote: “Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, be still, to the Divine Mystery that looks so ordinary yet is wondrously present.”
Christmas is never just the 25th of December. God’s love is eternal and therefore, each and every day of our lives, we can have Christmas in our midst, in our hearts. We can look forward to God’s gifts and blessings each day, not just on the 25th of December. Have you tried looking forward to God’s gifts for you each day?
A very active advocate for the environment, at past 80 years old, reminded us all during a session with her, that each morning, each day, God has prepared a basket for each of us, to be used for collecting all the gifts and blessings that He has prepared for us! Have you experienced taking that basket to collect God’s blessings for you each day?
The December 11 recollection with Sr. Rose and 21 other co-participants was another occasion to “collect” once again the blessings poured by the Lord in our lives in the past and at present. It was certainly a very precious preparation for Christmas, a rare spiritual journey with others to remember all the blessings and gifts provided by God our Father, through His Son Jesus Christ, with Mama Mary and the Holy Spirit and the quiet but brave St. Joseph.
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Email: cherryb_thefreeman@yahoo.com.