Dateline: Bethlehem, Holy Land. Here in the very birth place of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I have come to deeply and insightfully contemplate on how the secular world has transformed Christmas into a big business enterprise. The big malls, the gift shops, the high-end outlets of branded goods, the hotels, restaurants and resort complexes are making a big ''killing'' during the season of the Yuletide. Gift-giving is no longer a beautiful occasion to manifest a genuine love or affection. The giving of gifts has become an obligation, a burden and a compulsory ritual which is both quite expensive and indubitably pretentious. There is no more pleasure and grace. It has lost its original meaning and purpose.
Christmas is no longer considered meaningful without expensive decorations and outward manifestations of the season. People put up sophisticated and hightech Christmas trees and Christmas lanterns, ''belens'' and '' mangers'' complete with all the modern gadgets and amenities. There is too much emphasis on what can impress the eyes, the ears and the tastes.. There is no more stress on the more important and essential messages and symbolisms that are invisible. Gifts are given for ulterior motives as bribes, as a business marketing instruments and as a means to close some deals. Gifts are no longer selfless and aimed at pleasing the recipients.
Families are too fixated on material and financial aspects of the Christmas season. Family members can no longer enjoy just the presence of each other. They expect to have an expensive lunch or dinner in a five-star hotel and class A restaurant. They are no longer contended on being together on Christmas Day. Gifts, expensive gifts are expected. When there is none, relationships can be strained or entirely broken. Children and even parents do expect that gifts should be showered on them. Sons and daughters do expect that they be given material gifts, otherwise they would feel very bad.
Christmas parties are becoming very, very expensive. Foods, drinks, music providers demand high fees. Those who sponsor or organize the parties are pressured to spend substantially and to prepare expensive foods and lavish decorations. These parties can no longer be held in simple and inexpensive venues. They need to be celebrated in five-star hotels and in high-end places. Live bands are being commissioned to provide music and entertainment. Parlor games and raffles are deemed essential parts of these ostentatious and lavish celebrations. Exchanging gifts are subject to strict rules on minimum values and stringent specifications.
Our largely secular world and our extremely materialistic times make us forget the real meaning of Christmas. In our too many hustles and bustles for materialistic things, many of us would even tend to overlook, or even to forget altogether, the very reason for the season, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. In our too much fixation on the materialistic and costly things, we have in turn neglected the more essential and the more fundamental purpose of and meaning of Christmas. This great mistake is the very reason why I have brought my entire family here in Israel, here in Bethlehem so that we can go back to what really matters most.
I thus call upon all Filipinos, especially the Cebuanos like me, to try a little contemplation. What have the secular world and the extremely materialistic times done to our Christmas. Why have we, the Christians, especially the Catholics, allowed the greed of the businessmen, traders, merchants and their minions and agents to rob us of the genuine and lasting meaning of the season. Why have we, in our preoccupation with the pleasures of the body, opted to disregard what really matters most? Let us not allow the Yuletide to end without discovering the real reason for the season. He really is what matters most.