Christmas …

Rev. Fr. Leopold Ratnasekera OMI.

The perennial Christian festival of Christmas which focuses on human dignity and calling the world to a renewed spirit of human fraternity across continents, cultures, languages and even religions and various ideologies as well, brings glad tidings indeed as the curtain falls over the current year. In Sri Lanka, it will be celebrated amidst the struggles of the people and hopes of the nation in which our motherland is enmeshed at the moment. Though the national scenario reveals horizons clouded with uncertainty and overshadowed with anxieties of many a kind, Christmas 2023 bears the silver lining of hope that we all need to welcome and embrace and not missed as an auspicious moment of joy.

Christmas is the story of the unprecedented birth of Jesus Christ who is at the core of the Christian religion and considered the Divine Savior of mankind. In his countenance we behold the face of God himself. He was on a mission to bring some good news ushering in an era of grace and brotherhood. In being raised up on a cross, he has drawn all things to himself inviting all who are weary and heavy-burdened to come to him for rest, solace and contentment.

Declaring himself to be the Light of the world he pledged to destroy all forms of darkness overshadowing our lives with doubt, pain and suffering which are mankind’s common lot in life. He had invited people to live without fear since they can look up to him as the one who has overcome the world and its spirit. He pledges his presence in the world unto the end of time as humanity struggles journeying towards better times of peace among nations and prosperity for mankind.

Christmas is the mysterious event of the Incarnation of God in a marginal Jew, as some authors have referred to him, Jesus from the northern Galilean village of Nazareth born into a carpenter family. This child-prodigy already at the age of twelve seem to have had a solid insight knowledge of the religious scriptures that he was able even to ask questions and argue on matters pertaining to his religious tradition with even experts in the law who were alarmed and amazed at the knowledge he exhibited in their conversation.

At the age of thirty he left home to be an itinerant preacher going about not only teaching but also gathering disciples and working miracles which included healings, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, making the lame walk and even raising the dead. He even claimed to have the power to forgive sins which is God’s prerogative and dared to cleanse the temple driving away the traders who were violating the sacred precincts which he claimed is a house of prayer for all the nations but now turned into a den of robbers.

He taught with authority unlike the religious leaders of his time. In due time with his fame going viral in the cities and villages of his land, unprecedented crowds flocked in the Galilean beaches, the hills and mountains of Samaria and in the temples in and around Jerusalem, to listen to him and be healed of their various deceases.

Having come to save those who were lost, he did not fail to befriend the poor and the sinners, even those considered abhorrent and despicable in his society like the lepers. True to the image of the good shepherd who knows his sheep by name and who keeping watch at every hour defends them against the hirelings who might break in and snatch them, he was ready to lay down his life for them. The incredible episode of his passion, rejection and ignominious death carries that moving story.

Gleaning his teachings we come across the Sermon on the Mount which has become a spiritual classic and Christianity’s lasting legacy to mankind. The poor, the meek, those persecuted for the sake of truth and justice, those who have to mourn and be constantly in tears, those oppressed and marginalized, the most vulnerable and weak are blessed indeed to read these words that elicit a sense of hope and contentment exultant with the feeling that they are still being loved and counted.

This mountain teaching is a challenge that is hurled at every situation of oppression, dehumanization and social injustice, wherever these social evils and crimes against humanity are being perpetrated, whatever the system or whosoever the oppressor may be. It is by virtue of this conviction that Jesus Christ came to the rescue of the despised and of women and children who had no status or rights in the society of his day.

The dignity of human beings and fraternity among people is seen today intimately linked with caring for nature and environment of which humanity is part and has a sense of belonging. Hence the imperative for ensuring the integrity of creation, arrest the pollution of the environment and fight the climate change crisis. Jesus was amazed at the beauty of the lilies of the field that were arrayed more splendidly than Solomon in his glory. So were the birds of the air who neither knit nor gather into barns but with God caring and providing for their needs.

 He spoke about how people can read the dawn of the seasons of summer and rain by gazing at the trees that are laden with fruit and the greenery of leaves. He used these phenomena of nature for illustrating profounder truths when he spoke in parables. His option for the poor he demonstrated in his severe condemnation of the rich who feast opulently at their sumptuous banquets while the poor lay at their doors yearning for the morsels that fell from their exquisite tables. This was the kind of social order that was envisaged by the Nazarene who came from Galilee for he had known the life struggle of a carpenter family to keep the home fires burning through hard work. The sweat of even the common laborer is worth all the gold one can cling to.

Human fraternity and social relationships include the work of reconciling people in conflict and bringing an atmosphere of openness, dialogue, mutual trust and understanding. Jesus wished that Jews be reconciled with the Samaritans who were considered by the former as a hybrid race coming from the intermingling of the invading powers and the local people not taken into exile or deported.

The Samaritans traced their origins to different patriarchs. The Jew who fell among robbers and was cared for by a Samaritan traveler brought home the lesson of reconciliation. His conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob in Samaria freeing her from her erratic life, showed how women are important in the rebuilding of a wounded society erasing off its social ills. Jesus received invitations to banquets both from rich Pharisees as well as publicans and tax collectors cordoned off as marginalized and despised by the public as the lepers were, whom Jesus dared to touch and heal. The dignity of every human being was uppermost in his mind. He defended it without compromise.

The adult world that causes scandal of any kind in the world of children was in his view a serious social disorder that deserved severe condemnation. It is obviously relevant today when dealing with the sexual abuse of minors that scars modern day society as well as the multi-faceted exploitation of children such as child soldiers, sex workers and in child labor. The fate of millions of children world over to whom parental love is denied or are malnourished for want of food and suffer as a result of lack of health facilities or killed in indiscriminate bombings, is a heart-rending scenario in our modern world that should make us anxious indeed.

These are innocent children who are the most vulnerable. The bewildering horror of abortion which is the ruthless and brutal killing of the unborn and euthanasia the forceful termination of life for whatever reason, have introduced a deplorable culture of death which contravenes a culture of life and a civilization of love and care of the most vulnerable. Christian ethics can in no way condone or reconcile with these heinous crimes which is an open slur on human dignity besides being moral evils, unethical and highly questionable issues. Jesus Christ came to give life giving it in abundance brimming with all its bounty one can imagine.

Christmas is woven into the story of a child’s birth. Every new-born infant is a miracle of nature, a bundle of joy, a blessing to the parents, a bond of the family, a being of destiny and a future saint. Focusing on the child of Bethlehem, there is a call to gaze at the nobility of humanity and the precious value and dignity of life symbolised by the children. Christmas is good news about children its protagonists, who deserve love and care.

They have to be made to grow in age, wisdom and grace before God and man. At every Christmas we are invited to become more conscious of our human dignity and what in solidarity we can do to enhance the sense of humanity by fostering the brotherhood of man across communities, nations and continents. Such a celebration of Christmas will surely keep aflame the splendour of this unique luminary that will brighten up the horizons of today’s humanity.