Christmas contextualised

By Fr J.C. Pieris

When we celebrate a birthday, we do not go back to the infancy of the person and celebrate that first day. If it is a ten-year-old girl, we celebrate the tenth year of the child. If it is an old man of eighty years, we do not go back to the zero point of his life and remember the one-day-old baby. But do you realise that it is only in the case of Jesus that we go back to the zero point of his life and celebrate his birth, his first day on this Earth as an infant? That realisation gives rise to an interesting theological reflection. It can be called contextualising Christmas.

Jesus is born every day everywhere on this planet. Every infant born is born to become a perfect human being, to become God’s child. The mission of every baby born is to fulfill the dream of God for it and that is to become the best possible human being; a Siddhartha, a Socrates, a Francis, a Lincoln, a Gandhi, a Mandela, a Romero … a Jesus, a child of God.

In the context of Jesus two millennia ago, he became a sign of contradiction to his contemporaries. From the moment of his birth till he breathed his last on the cross he was hounded by the leaders of the nation; the high priests, king Herod the satrap, the imperial governor Pilate, the scribes, the Sadducees and some of the Pharisees. He preached the revolutionary idea that the Kingdom of God has come where all are equal, fed properly, clothed properly, respected, cared for, loved, healthy, happy and free.

And so, we come to the exercise of contextualising Jesus in the current here and now. Imagine Jesus is born in the year 2022 on December 25th in Sri Lanka in a village called Bathlenagama. Poor baby Jesus; he is born a debtor to the world to the tune of Rs 12 lakhs. What good has the 12 lakhs he has borrowed done to him? The Lady Ridgway children’s hospital doesn’t even have facilities to do a simple blood test. Will Mary, his mother, be so malnourished that he is born underweight? Then what happened to the 12 lakhs he has borrowed? According to the Auditor General’s office ¾ of it was stolen by the current Herods, Pilates, Annases and Caiaphases; the governing kleptocracy, Ali Baba and the 225 thieves their cronies and the top administration. Rs 9 lakhs that belong to baby Jesus is stolen by the greedy, criminal leaders of the nation, beggars that steal from cradles, shameless parasites! What happened to the ¼ he finally got? Most of it went up in smoke called taxes; income tax, payroll tax, VAT, social security tax, capital gains tax, estate tax, indirect tax, local income tax (corporate and individual), property tax, sales tax, surcharge tax, excise tax etc. Every piece of baby soap, bottle of eau-de-Cologne, diaper, pampers, milk powder and other baby needs are heavily taxed. Poor baby Jesus, at the end of the day 90% of what he has borrowed from the world has gone into pockets and hidden accounts of rogues and merchants.

Joseph is a carpenter looking for work in a country bankrupted by its thoroughly corrupt leaders with inflation at 66% which is daily becoming worse. The construction industry has slowed down drastically with the prices of cement and iron shooting up to the stratosphere. Joseph finds it almost impossible to make ends meet. To find work he wants to go to Egypt (Middle East) but without Mary and the baby. Mary is against it. They are a very young and a loving family. Mary is against the family break-up. The next option is for the whole family to leave the country. They have neither the finances nor influence to become legal emigrants with proper visas. They can try illegal boat crossings in the dead of night, very dangerous. And they hesitate. They do not want baby Jesus to end up like the cute little child, Alan Kurdi, on a Greek beach.

In desperation, Mary sounds out Joseph about her going to work as a housemaid leaving the three-year-old Jesus with his father. But Joseph is adamantly against it. For, the bankrupt government has decided to sell our women to the cads of Middle East like in Oman and other middle eastern countries. The government and its ministers, the despicable pimps, are indulging in human trafficking. All that ministers want is forex to run the country and steal from import deals by giving contracts to the highest bidder instead of to the lowest and getting their cut. Mary gives up the idea of working abroad. Now, both Joseph and Mary are desperate existing from hand to mouth finding only small carpentry jobs now and then here and there.

What does the year 2023 hold out to this poor holy family? With inflation nearing three digits, more protests and rallies surely. Mary and Joseph will certainly take Jesus to the Aragalaya. Two millennia ago, where ever and when ever there was a conflict between the powerful and the powerless, the rich and the poor Jesus was right in the middle of it. The prospects for the economy to revive next year is grim. Half the factories are closed down and more will close down next year. The IMF is not going to help this unelected, unstable government which grabbed power through constitutional trickery. No investors will come to a country run by a government that has no people’s sanction. The President says that next year there will be food scarcity leading to possible starvation. He is throwing the problem at us as if we bankrupted the country. The perpetrators of economic crimes against the nation are the government. What hope can there be for the people in the year 2023? None!

In 2023, will there be peace in the country? Your guess is as good as mine. But there surely will be more protests, rallies and the Aragalaya will be revived. The police and the armed forces will be out in strength to suppress and oppress the citizens of the country. The holy family will be present in the Aragalaya. Joseph might be arrested and jailed under detention orders of the Batalanda ogre. Jesus and Mary will be outside on the streets waiting for Joseph and trying to get him out with the help of the Aragalaya lawyers.

What about employment next year? Will there be more jobs? No, jobs will be scarcer and thefts, burglaries, robberies, banditry, mugging and pickpocketing will increase. Will there be enough food to go around? Probably not, and while the Ali Baba and the 225 thieves party at the Shangri-la people will go hungry. Malnutrition will worsen and with it illnesses and diseases also will increase. But there will be no medicines. Already there is a crisis in the hospitals which cannot function normally without essential medicines and medical equipment. The situation will become worse and mortality rate will go up. Ayurveda and veda mahattayas can do nothing. That reminds one of the hocus-pocus peniya and the more stupid pot-throwing-into-rivers promoted by a fool of a minister of health and their pacha TV channels to cure Covid 19.

Jesus will have to go to pre-school to start his education. Already this year some mothers have taken their children out of the nursery class as they do not have money to pay the fees and the school van. Mary might have to keep Jesus at home and teach him herself. In 2023, more children from the primary and the secondary schools will drop out. The number of children doing O/Ls and A/Ls will certainly drop as tuition fees and other educational expenses increase uncontrollably. The government will be happy. Next year, there will be plenty of child labor for the multinationals and local businesses.

How free will we be in the year 2023? Less, of course. Freedom of speech will be reduced by the brutal police and the PTA. Independent media women and men will be targeted. Police arrests and detentions will increase but the Aragalaya will go on. Mary is sure to be with the brave Aragalaya women singing her song of liberation: “God has shown strength with God’s arm; God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Jesus is still a baby but her mother’s song is remembered when he launched his public social activity: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Thus, we conclude contextualising Christmas. We have gone far off from the tinsel Christmas we are accustomed to with Santa, the tree, the cake, the gifts, the rich food, the fireworks, new dresses and drinks. We have come much closer to the real Christmas of two millennia ago with all the hardships and heart aches of the young couple Joseph and Mary with the infant Jesus, so unaware, and peacefully asleep cuddling against the bosom of his mother.

If only I can wish: Happy Christmas Sri Lanka … one day, soon; I’ll be truly happy.