Christmas

 
Once again we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Enormous time and much effort are devoted to buy gifts for our loved ones. Even those of us who are not of Christian faith also celebrate Christmas for seasonal festivities.  
Christmas is more than partying and exchanging gifts.    
The coming of Jesus Christ in this world was a paradigm shift in the way man relates to others. The credo such as   “eye for an eye” was questioned and “Love thy Neighbors” became a siren call especially in the world that was governed by the Romans.
 
The message of non-violence and reverence for all life was first enunciated in India about 500 years before Christ. This had transformed India for a long time when spirituality reigned supreme.
 
The message of Jesus Christ is sheer love and respect for all. In his suffering and sacrifice on the cross, He signifies that “means and commitment” are more important than “end” for the right outcome and for the ways of God. His forgiving of his tormentors was a signal that divinity comes when one embraces the reflection of God in all facets of worldly life.

 
The magnetism of the message of Jesus Christ is resplendent in how societies have changed over the centuries and barbaric forces have been proven wrong time after time.
 
Barbarity is present in all, in our daily lives and on a national and international level. It is not a monopoly of one section of population or of people from one part of the world. The first and second world wars are proof of what devastation can be wrought even by those who profess to follow the “self-defined” civilized way.
 
Many of us are fortunate to know of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and others whose actions have proven the centrality of Jesus”™ message of love, sacrifice and forgiveness in furthering the true civilization and happiness of human kind.
 
Let Christmas celebration become an event of partaking, practicing and sharing the divine and true message of Lord Jesus Christ rather than just exchanging obligatory material gifts.
 
When we meet our family and friends (during Christmas holidays) let us seek forgiveness for any misdeeds done to them by us and forgive them for any perceived or real misdeeds done by them to us.
 
This will be a gift par excellence! Pass it on and see the magic!   Merry Christmas.
 
Pravin Shah