Christmas 2005
December 25, 2005 on 6:07 pm | In Christmas | Comments OffThe following article was obtained from The PIONEER (Indian newspaper) –Saturday December 25th 2005
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=OPED&file_name=opd1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
I found this an excellent material to understand the meaning of Christmas as understood by individuals of different faiths. I hope this helps the reader to get a better and/or different understanding of the meaning of Christmas
Pravin Shah
| True message of love | |||
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| Jesus Christ was a perfect model of these qualities which he was able to transmit to his followers. These were responsible for making his followers a distinctive group, and, without doubt, qualities that guaranteed their success despite the odds they faced in the early days of their history. This finds expression in the holy Quran in these words: “We gave Christ the Gospel and put compassion and mercy in the hearts of his followers.” (57:27). In another chapter the Quran states: “The nearest in affection to the Muslims are those who say: ‘We are Christians’. That is because there are priests and monks among them; and because they are free from pride.” (5:82-83). | |||
| I would like to refer to a relevant hadith (Prophet’s saying) recorded in Sahih Muslim, which is regarded as the most authentic collection of traditions after Sahih Al Bukhari. Mustaurid, a companion of the Prophet, reported that the Prophet (Blessings of God be upon him) said: “The Day of Judgement will not come until the Christians outnumber all other people (owing to their special qualities).” In the classical literature of Islam, Christ and Christianity find reference in many forms. Christ has been called the “Spirit of God” (4:171) in the Quran. Of Mary, the Quran has this to say: “We breathed into her of Our spirit, and made her and her son a sign to all men.” (21:91). | |||
| Although Mohammad as a Prophet of God is referred to in the Quran about one thousand times, He is referred to by name in the Quran only five times. In contrast, the Quran mentions the name of Jesus Christ no less than 36 times and of Mary 34 times. This shows the great importance Islam attaches to Jesus and his mother, Mary. The importance of Christmas lies in its being the source of social interaction on a vast scale. Christmas reminds us of one of the greatest human value put in words by Christ himself: “Love your enemy.” We are definitely in need of such doctrines of peace in a period when hatred pervades our mindset. The Christmas message for all of us can be: Love all, including your enemy. | |||
| Good news of great joy | |||
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| Festivals are celebrations. But what is it that they celebrate? Is not every festival a celebration of our liberation? Festivals bring people together. For that to happen, they have to be liberated, first, from all exclusive and excluding barriers. All social and religious barriers are suspended for the sake of festivals. | |||
| Then, all people feel at home with Christmas. There is a good reason for this. Jesus was born outside the man-made system, every one of which- everything in the sphere of religion and politics-is oppressive. Jesus was born outside the minefields of power and profit. If Jesus were born in a palace, it would have been under the shadow of power. Had Mary given birth to him in an inn, it would have been under the clouds of profit-motive. The world of power and profit stifles the spirit of festivity. | |||
| Jesus does not belong to a religious system! Look at the details of the story of his birth. You do not see a single priest in it. The shepherds, the angels, the animals, the wise men from the East are all there. But the representatives of the priestly class are conspicuous by their absence! If Jesus does not belong to a religious establishment, he belongs to the people! All people. Those familiar with his teachings and his dealing with people would readily agree. Everyone- prostitute, leper, outcaste, the poor, the unclean-was acceptable to him. Not everyone, really. He was allergic to hypocrites. And he found them mostly among religious leaders. | |||
| According to the Bible, the birth of Jesus is “good news of great joy”. What is this good news? Surely, it is not news about a special heaven reserved for Christians. It is, on the contrary, good news about the possibility of being authentic human beings. We are children of God. If we are truly human, we will reflect on the nature of God. God’s nature expresses itself through spiritual values like love, compassion, truth and justice. None of these values is exclusive to any religion. In fact, religions have little to do with these virtues. Christmas is, hence, not a religious festival at all. If it were, it would not have been a universal festival. | |||
| Christmas is not about eating cakes or imbibing alcohol. It is about discovering and celebrating who we are. That is a basic human need. That being the case, it would be rather surprising if people all over the world were not to respond to it instantaneously. | |||
| Different flavours | |||
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| And celebrations are connected with the 2,000 years’ old event of the birth of Jesus Christ. Though Jesus was born nearly 2,000 years ago, the first celebrations of Christmas began almost 400 years after that event; from then on Christmas is celebrated all over the world with great devotion, solemnity and gaiety. | |||
| A few things commonly associated with Christmas all over the world are decorations of all kinds, not missing the Crib with the images of the Holy Family, carol singing, Christmas cards, Christmas cakes and indeed endless shopping. There might be some minor differences in the way some of the above mentioned items are handled which all depends in the country in which one is celebrating the festival or sometimes within the same country, depending on the State where one is celebrating it. And that is possibly the most interesting thing about Christmas. | |||
| It is one festival that is celebrated in all the five continents of the world. And the fact that it is celebrated in practically all the countries in the world, it is bound to be coloured by the local cultures, beliefs, customs and indeed the climate of that country. So while it is a snow-filled “White Christmas” in Europe, Canada, North America or in the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, it is a Christmas with sunshine and tents on beaches in all the countries of the Southern Hemisphere. | |||
| And what about those countries which are neither hot nor cold? For instance, Christmas carols and decorations in the Philippines, the only Catholic country in the East, begin by October already. Filipinos by nature are sweet-natured and fun-loving. So they get into Christmas mood well ahead of December 25, sometimes towards the beginning of October. But they have also another interesting religious tradition, which starts nine days before Christmas and which is popularly called “Missa de Galio”. This is the celebration of the Holy Mass (worship) which begins everyday at 4.00 am and is attended by a large number of people with great fervour and devotion. It is a tradition that was brought from Spain; they being the colonisers of the Philippines for nearly four centuries. | |||
| The decorations in the high streets of Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore and parts of Korea and Taiwan before and during Christmas, however, surprises everyone, as these are not “Christian countries” per se. But one soon realises the impact Christmas has made on the people world over, though not necessarily always with its core message of love and peace. | |||
| Moving over to the Western countries, the Christmas celebrations, though fundamentally the same as far as writing cards, carol singing, cakes, midnight mass, Christmas cribs and trees are concerned, there is still a lot of difference between them. To start with, everyone expects it to be a “White Christmas”. Snow is one decoration provided by nature to the otherwise dead looking trees, with the exception of the pine and fur trees (that is how they came to be known as Christmas trees as they do not shed leaves even in the most severe winter). Once in Germany a few years ago there was no snow fall during Christmas, and while I was very happy not having to encounter biting cold, people looked rather gloomy due to its absence. | |||
| But India adds a different flavour to Christmas celebrations. Apart from the adaptation of Christmas carols in Hindi or in other regional languages, the celebrations in tribal areas are quite unique and different from the rest of the world. In some tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, where I had had an opportunity to work and celebrate Christmas, some of them identified Christmas with their own harvest festival. What makes Christmas also different in these areas is the totally local cultural adaptations of celebrations such as dances with drum beats and special dance steps that last for hours on end. | |||
| Another unique aspect of Christmas in India is the custom of people going to the homes of Christian friends to greet them for Christmas. This is an aspect that is missing in most other countries of the world and is very much cultural to India where people, besides being more friendly and sociable, make little distinction with each other because of their religious adherence. | |||
| The Speaking Christmas Tree | |||
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| In the beginning was the Word, | |||
| and the Word was with God, | |||
| and the Word was God. | |||
| He was in the beginning with God. | |||
| All things came to be through him, | |||
| And without him nothing came to be. | |||
| What came to be through was life, | |||
| And this life was the light of the human race, | |||
| The light shines in the darkness, | |||
| And the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn 1:1-5). | |||
| We celebrate the revelation of this divine truth that the Eternal Word has become a human being and has come to live among us so that humanity may be saved. John says further: | |||
| And the Word became flesh | |||
| And made his dwelling among us, | |||
| And we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, | |||
| Full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). | |||
| This relationship between God and humanity established in Jesus Christ is one in which God has fully and definitively held the whole of humanity in his embrace of love. We call this “grace”, as John describes: | |||
| From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, | |||
| because while the law was given through Moses, | |||
| grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (Jn 1:16). | |||
| To speak of Christmas is to speak of the infinite mystery of God’s love become incarnate in Jesus Christ. He is the full and total embodiment of divine love. Further on in his Gospel St John says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). | |||
| Jesus Christ, as St Paul says in one of his letters, is the visible image of the invisible God. In him we have come to know that our sins are forgiven and that we are reconciled with God and with one another. In other words, we have become God’s children and heirs of his eternal kingdom. And as children of light, our thoughts, words and deeds have always to conform to this inner reality. This is the path of salvation and newness of life to which the whole of humanity is called. To each and every human being Jesus Christ reveals his/her divine as well as human identity and vocation. | |||
| This great news of the incarnation of the Eternal Word to redeem humanity from the clutches of sin and death and to open to us the doors of eternal life of God’s glory was announced by the angels to the poor and simple-hearted shepherds like a news of great joy as narrated in the Gospel of St Mathew: | |||
| The angel of the Lord appeared to them (shepherds) and said, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you: You will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” (Mt 2:8-13). | |||
| The message of joy is accompanied with that of peace by the same angels: | |||
| Glory to God in the highest | |||
| and on earth peace to those | |||
| on whom his favour rests (Mt 2:14). | |||
| The joy, though, is primarily spiritual and of the soul. However, every internal reality has an external expression. This external expression of the internal joy and peace is the reason behind all the festivities of material nature connected with Christmas. The exchange of greetings and of gifts, the dancing and the merry-making, the yuletide singing, the many different types of cookies and dishes that people love to make and enjoy, the variety of programmes for children, etc, all have their foundation in the spiritual joy. | |||
| Unfortunately, today’s commercial world emphasises to such an extent the material aspect of Christmas that the true spiritual meaning is either downplayed or overshadowed and forgotten. This secular understanding of Christmas as a “holiday” time and a cultural festival emerged in the West and is slowly creeping into India, too. Nevertheless, we can be thankful to God that the spiritual content of the feast of Christmas is still very much alive in India because we are basically a land of profound spirituality. | |||
| In India, Christmas is as much a national festival as any other like Diwali and Dusshera. Although the main celebrating community is of the Christians, yet by and large it finds an echo in everyone’s heart. There is a general Christmas spirit that pervades the nation as December 25 approaches. This is set in motion by the exchange of greeting cards and the various Christmas festival concessions offered by the Postal Department. The electronic and print media make it a point to cover this festival through a variety of programmes of a cultural, spiritual and informative nature. One gets the impression that all areas of the country whether rural or urban participate in the joy of Christmas. | |||
| The Christian community in India celebrates Christmas with the traditional devotion it is known for. All the customary practices associated with Christmas are always maintained and usually enhanced every passing year. In many places the door to door singing of Christmas carols about a week before Christmas marks the beginning of the joyful season. During this period many churches organise special prayer services which are meant for an intense spiritual preparation for Christmas. The focus is always on the purification of the heart and on asking for God’s mercy and pardon so that Christmas can be celebrated with a pure and clean heart. | |||
| A couple of days before Christmas, Christian homes are lit up with decorative lights, lanterns, balloons and festoons. The traditional star occupies the central place. It symbolises the star in the New Testament which guided the three wise men from the East to the manger at Bethlehem. A beautifully decorated Christmas tree may also be found in many homes but the one item that cannot be missed is the crib with the images of Mary, Joseph and Child Jesus in it. Parishes across the dioceses of the country will not miss the annual Christmas Tree for children and the much loved “Christmas Father” or Santa Claus. In very many places a variety of competitions are held such as star competition, carol competition, crib competition, etc. | |||
| The day of Christmas itself sees thousands of people flocking the churches for the Christmas Masses and prayer services. In all Catholic churches there is the traditional midnight Mass, which usually draws the biggest congregation and is accompanied by melodious choral singing. After the church services, people greet each other with a warm “Merry Christmas”. | |||
| Christmas is always a family feast. Whether rich or poor every family tries to unite over a family meal on Christmas day to experience the warmth of love that binds a family together. It also symbolises the wider family of God into which we have been drawn together. | |||
| One can notice the thrust towards the poor, the homeless, the downtrodden, the marginalised that characterises the entire celebration of Christmas and its spirit. Churches and other organisations show their special love towards the poor during this season through the distribution of gifts for children, blankets to families, meals, sports and cultural programmes for children and adults of the poorer localities. All this underlines the one message of Christmas, that is, self-sacrificing love. | |||
| A dimension of Christmas that is becoming increasingly popular is the inter-religious gathering especially in the North. In places like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, representatives of all major religions join in a common prayer service for Christmas during which they give their felicitations. In a plural country like ours, this practice will go a long way in helping people enter into the religious experience of each other and build communal harmony. | |||
| Also seen is the phenomenon of hundreds of thousands of people who are not Christians flocking to the churches for prayer and “darshan” of the crib. They find peace, joy and healing in the presence of Jesus. Christmas calls us to be humble before the Lord and to lay down all our false pretensions of pride and superiority that are not in accordance with the values of God’s Kingdom. The poverty and powerlessness in which Christ was born calls us to be poor and powerless and to seek the one power alone that can bring salvation to this world, that is, love, which leads to peace. | |||
| (The writer is the Auxilliary Bishop of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese) | |||
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