Christmas is a Christian festival without borders and celebrated worldwide no matter what one’s nationality, culture, language, ideology or religious persuasion may be. The mass media these days portray the mosaic of celebrations in different countries with the whole world aglow in a mood of joy and gaiety: from the snow and ice-laden Alaska to the torrid heat-trapped central Africa and from the Americas across Europe and beyond the Middle-East where the first Christmas took place to countries of Asia-Oceania.
It is indeed a global cultural event. Yet at times, the materialism of the day coupled with the destructive commercialising trend that paganise it on the one hand and the puritan insistence on its purely spiritual significance on the other hand which is retaliatory to the exaggerated emphasis on various festive bonanzas and focusing solely on the Santa Claus, have all but caricatured the radical human and social dimension of the Birth of Jesus Christ who had left such an indelible mark in humanity’s landscape and in the history of civilisation.
Jesus Christ, a humble carpenter’s son, a supposed-to-be marginal Jew as some modern secular historians see him, brought in a silent but an incinerating social revolution that goes a long way even after twenty centuries following the event that can radically inspire and transform the society of today.
The glamour and the glitter of street lights that adorn our cities and towns, the magical attraction of shops and supermarkets which spin their trade and the exotic banquets and galas which are orchestrated only by the rich and the powerful should not seduce and wean away our minds from focusing on the serious challenges that the Christmas story affronts us every year-end.
Here is a religious story which is alarmingly prophetical in impact and challenging the status-quo of many a socio-cultural, political and historical issue we are forced to deal with as we strive to keep humanity live up to its dignity and ensuringthe earth our common home stay safe far from the danger of degradation and even perhaps of imminent collapse.
Birth and life in humble circumstances
The birth of Jesus Christ took place in the obscurity of a city crowded with people but devoid of a place even for a night’s rest except the back-yard of an inn where the cattle lay. The epochal event that took place on the first-ever Christmas night, was sadly hidden from the world of noise and glamour, except for a chosen few: the parents of the child concerned, the shepherds who received the good news from an angelic chorus that rang out over the hills of Bethlehem and the three kings from the East who followed the guidance of a strange star to where the child was born.
We are told that the shepherds went in haste to adore the child and that the kings made sure that no one disrupted their onward journey to Bethlehem for there were powers that be trying to misdirect and confuse the kings while plotting to destroy the child. It is the most treacherousand cowardly ever murder-conspiracy hatched to annihilate a creature of innocence: an infanticide. The Herods of today continue in this murderous trail in those who promote abortion, the destruction of the unborn, the most vulnerable of human beings on earth with the worst being States and governments legalising this crime that cries to heaven for vengeance and mothers who have lost all sense of moral conscience daring to turn their wombs, the sanctuaries of life into living cemeteries.
The parents of the new-born infant were put on exile all the way into Egypt to ensure its safety. The wretched conditions of the inn now haunt them along the journey to Egypt which reminded them too of the long 430-year old exile and slavery of their ancestors under Pharaohs in Egypt and 70-year long Babylonian exile and relive vividly those horrible experiences: their Auschwitz.
It is the sad spectacle of the poor and the weak always falling a prey into the cruel hands and machinations of the powerful who often abuse their place and position to oppress the most vulnerable. Here we are dealing with a family in exile, migrating to a foreign land seeking safety. It reminds us of the massive migration of peoples worldwide seeking greener pastures, freedom and economic prosperity away from the iron-fists of political and cultural oppression: a global phenomenon at present fraught with much risk and danger to life itself in the high seas and at international borders where migrants are stranded and languishing in trauma, with some even being deported.
New values – new perspectives
The one who was born poor and lived in a carpenter’s home did not find it difficult to embrace an itinerant life as he wandered through his land looking for companions who would live and work with him. He has come anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to bring some good news to the poor and to announce an era of blessings over the world of God’s reign and rule. In this undertaking, Jesus the preacher and the healer would fulfill all pledges in the healing of the blind, the deaf, the lame and the maimed, forgive sins, free those imprisoned from their chains of slavery and even raise the dead.
It was an all-out battle for bestowing the fullness of life to the most vulnerable. This work of human liberation was conveyed to his hearers in his first-ever public appearance in his home town Nazareth’s prayer-house. In the way he went around the various cities, towns and countryside we see a teacher leading his disciples to inner religion devoid of oppressive legalism that killed the spirit of the law and working hard to reconcile differences between races and making every effort to break down social barriers by destroying issues that created various stigmas. There was the historic conflict between the Jews in the north and south with those who lived in the central part of Samaria.
The Samaritans were considered a hybrid race born from the intermingling of invaders like the Babylonians with some of the local population that were not exiled. Jesus moved among them. He welcomed the faith and the trust he found in the Samaritans and gave us the beautiful parable about the good Samaritan as a teaching of what it means to go out in compassion to a neighbour fallen a victim among robbers: the victim being a Jew. There is clear condemnation of racial and religious discrimination. We all can go in charity and compassion to any human being who needs care.
The story of the conversation between Jesus and a sinful Samaritan woman at the well reveals him to be the epitome of patience and listening in striving to make her accept her erratic life and helping her discover her dignity as a person. Thus a social outcast was not only freed from a wretched way of life but also brought to being accepted with honour by her own people.
In his teachings Jesus Christ taught the imperative of forgiveness even of the enemy. He prayed on the cross for those who nailed him to death and forgave the good thief who identified with his pain on the cross. One has to cease every opportunity to lead the errant and the erratic take on a new way of life. He even challenged Herod the tetrarch of Galilee whom he felt was as cunning as a fox and Pilate too when he defended his kingship reproaching Pilate for his failure to see the truth.
While giving to Caesar what is his, one must not deny God his rights as well. This is always the struggle believers have when practising their faith and at the same time being loyal citizens as well. Once again secular power should not ostracise the rights of religions. Not in a few countries today we see this disturbing tension between religions and the State.
The Sermon on the Mount which is one of his core teachings challenges us to pursue a happiness that stands contrary to worldly values and strivings. Accordingly, blessed are the poor, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart and those persecuted for the sake of righteousness. This is a revolutionary type of religious ethos and a spirituality that brazenly contravenes a worldly mentality and pursuit of purely humanistic and materialistic goals in life which dim values and ideals more sublime and noble.
Such is the impact of Jesus Christ the teacher and liberator born on the first Christmas night. It is indeed a night to remember and an event the lustre of which is destined to remain abiding as long as humanity lives for and yearns for a society that is truthful as well as just and good-willed, where differences are peacefully reconciled in mutual trust and respect.
Today, too many conflicts both minor and major mar the beauty of the face of the earth our common home and continue wounding humanity, making the world a place less safe to live and go about our daily chores in tranquility. The world should be on a better-motivated journey that will wean away nations from being constantly in tumult and people yearning for things that are vain: a humanity reborn nestling in peace, not only giving glory to God but also fostering human dignity and the brotherhood of man.
