Rhapsody of Christmas

Once the “ber” months set in, we know that the rhapsody of Christmas has begun. Even the upcoming Southeast Asian Games (or SEA Games) cannot beat the Christmas euphoria. Why? Filipinos really like to party. We are fond of fiestas and holidays. We love to be with family and friends. We have a fixation for traditions. As a matter of fact, we also make traditions of other countries (i.e. Halloween, Easter, Oktoberfest, Thanksgiving) part of our own. 

As the yuletide season begins, we are caught between the commercial aspect of Christmas and the historical-religious aspect of it. We balance the joy with a yin and yang attitude. We share our joys with the less fortunate and we make it a point to religiously attend the simbang gabi scheduled masses.

It is timely to recall what the late Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. wrote about Christmas and the Eucharist: The lesson of Christmas and the Eucharist must be obvious by now. God does nothing in vain. He did not choose to become man nor does He remain man in our midst except that He wants to evoke from us something of the same kind of love that He showed during His life on earth and still shows us in His life in the Eucharist. Jesus Christ gives us His Flesh and Blood to adore, worship and nourish our souls on, so that we might live with His life. What He wants us to do therefore, and this is the lesson, is to love Him as He has been loving us.

When God came into the world, He came as Scripture tells us, obedient first of all to His Father’s Will; then, as a Child and through His growing manhood, He was obedient to His mother Mary and to Joseph. In the Eucharist, too, He is totally submissive. The moment a duly ordained priest pronounces the words of Consecration, Jesus Christ comes down on the altar, He obeys. This is our faith. And perhaps this is the hardest lesson to learn, to love God obediently. It means, as we know, obeying God not only interiorly or according to our own understanding or interpretation of God’s Will, it means obeying God as that divine Will is explained and interpreted for us by His very fallible and weak human creatures.

There are lessons that God wants us to learn from Christmas as a historical event and from Christmas as a perennial reality because, as you see, the Eucharist is Christmas. Believing in Christ’s Real Presence, we have the grave responsibility of invoking, in faith, this Jesus, begging Him, pleading with Him that He might grant those graces—if need be, miraculous graces—that the sinful world He came to redeem so desperately needs. Jesus redeemed the world, but it is not redeemed unless we cooperate with His grace. And we must cooperate with His grace not only for ourselves, but for the whole world, so that Jesus’ coming into the world will not, for any soul, have been in vain.

On November 30, Saturday as we observe Bonifacio Day and anticipate the opening of the SEA Games, the 32nd Eucharistic Congress of the Pink Sisters at the St. Joseph’s Adoration Convent in Hemady Street, New Manila, Quezon City will take place. This year’s theme is “Gifted, Beloved, and Empowered in the Eucharist.”

In the Philippines, my late grandfather Benito Soliven was instrumental in organizing the successful 33rd International Eucharistic Congress in Manila in 1937. The congress was attended by approximately one and a half million people from all over the world and had a religious procession with 600,000 devotees. Pontifical masses were held in Rizal Park, with hundreds of thousands of people attending.

My grandfather in his welcome speech said: Never have I addressed an audience more distinguished than this august assemblage, nor have I ever spoken on a subject more transcendent, more sublime than that of the present occasion. As I look around me, I see some of the foremost spiritual and intellectual leaders in this country, whose labors and achievements bespeak of the past while they are in all verity also of the present and they project their influence on the future of the nation; while the best of Filipino youths are here, significantly representing the highest institutions of learning, where the leaders of the future are formed and trained. We are here to discuss how to adequately prepare ourselves and our people for a supreme event in the life of our country, to take place in Manila in February of next year, the International Eucharistic Congress.

I have been requested to speak on “What the Eucharistic Congress means to the Philippines”, a subject far too deep and broad for a speech of half an hour. The Eucharistic Congress is drawing attention of the rest of the world to our country. Four hundred million Catholics in Europe and Africa, in the Americas, and in Asia, have their eyes focused on us. They know that we are the chosen people, and the Philippines the chosen country, for the greatest international event of the year 1937.

It is a year extraordinarily crowded with important happenings and festivities. The International Exposition in Nagoya, Japan, in March, will bring together in grand exhibition the achievements of commerce and industry, the astounding material progress of this 20th century world. The International Exposition at Paris, France, will be a magnificent and wonderful show window of the arts and sciences, representing the intellectual progress of the world. The Coronation of King Edward VIII in London, England, on May 12 will gather in brilliant array the crowned heads and the sovereigns of the world, and will typify the glory of empires, the powers of kings.

But before all these events, preceding them in significance, in importance and splendor, will be the International Congress in Manila, Philippines, dedicated to the glory of God, fountain head of all wisdom and truth, source of all progress, King of Kings, the sovereign of heaven and earth.

On that occasion, we may rightly say that Manila will be the capital of the world, the meeting place of nations. East and West will meet, even as the cultures and civilizations of East and West have already met here and blended in the course and process of four centuries.

How beautiful and encouraging are his words. In times of atonement and reconciliation between God and humanity and in preparation for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, such events give us the “bread of life.”