Christmas,04

As I write these lines, two books that I read recently come to my mind: the one a novel, which I did not want to read at first but then changed my mind and read it and the other a semi-autobiography of a person who challenged the moral landscape of the world and made a decisive impact on its political and religious horizon. I am referring to Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and “Rise, Let us be on our Way” by Pope John Paul ll. Da Vinci Code is a mystery novel that is packed with vitriolic diatribes against the Catholic Church and slanderous comments on Jesus Christ. It has become one of the best selling novels on account of its fictional search for the Holy Grail. The novel has created some interest among its readers in the history of the Church in a very negative and prejudiced way and is successful in producing in the minds of the readers some cobwebs of confusion and suspicion. But the autobiography of the Holy Father is a clear and forthright enunciation of his strong faith in the providence of God and is the story of his life-long struggle to create hope and peace in the minds of the faithful.

The words of the Holy Father dealing with the role of Bishops in the book are very appropriate at this time when we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. He speaks of the sense of detachment or of emptiness that is required from every faithful follower of Jesus Christ. The Holy Father says: “I have decided to eliminate from my vocabulary the word “my”. How can I use that word when I know that everything is Yours?.......I must possess nothing, I must not wish to possess anything.” What more powerful words do we want to hear during this season of Christmas than these words of the Holy Father speaking about our lives as gifts of a loving Father?

Christmas is the time when we realize more than ever the hollowness and emptiness of everything that we have. The supreme act of emptying has happened at Christmas when God, the Lord of the Universe, became a humble human being, taking upon Himself the fragility and the brokenness of the human creation. Hence, Christmas is an occasion for every one to feel happy and dignified.

Human life is a given a new meaning by the birth of Jesus Christ. That is why one of the greatest poets of our time, T. S. Eliot could say in his poem, The Gift of the Magi, that he was not sure whether Christmas was a Birth or Death. In a way it was both: Birth as well as Death. Birth, because it gives us a new way of looking at the world, through love and Death, because it gives us the courage to destroy our selfishness and arrogance.

Every Christmas offers us a chance to see ourselves in our elemental simplicity and basic nothingness. The Child born in the manger in Bethlehem shows us our total helplessness and our need for dependence. Christmas helps us to see all our accomplishments and positions as layers and layers of emptiness put on our innate innocence. Once we see the “the child as the father of the man”, to use the words of another poet, Wordsworth, we get a new perspective on our neighbors, friends and relatives. They no longer become competitors or rivals, but pilgrims in our march to eternity.

The Church presents before its faithful two great models to prepare them for the celebration of Christ’s birth at every Advent: the Blessed Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. The words of Mary: “Let Thy will be done” and those of John the Baptist “Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand” will definitely prepare us for a new life and a new vision. It is Mary’s unconditional obedience to the Word of God that has opened the wonderful world of Divine Presence in her life. When John the Baptist preached the need for repentance, it became a great opportunity for the people of his time to experience the love and goodness of the Lord. It is these acts of surrender to the will of God and its acceptance by the Blessed Virgin Mary and John the Baptist that will give us the right models to face the difficulties and burdens of life with peace in our hearts.

As we benefit from the advantages of modern technology, we are also aware of the strident growth that secularism and consumerism have made in our era. These forces of secularism have such a corrosive power that unless we check them with a strong faith in the Lord, they will decimate the whole edifice of our faith. See, for example, how the powerful Corporations and Department stores are slowly replacing the word Christmas with Holidays! They are trying to be inclusive by excluding Christianity from their vocabulary!

May this Christmas help us to open the doors of our hearts to God as well as to our neighbors. Let there be a new determination in the depths of our heart to become compassionate and loving.