When I was growing up, Christmas was a lovely childhood story of the baby Jesus born in a clean looking stable surrounded by his loving parents in clean robes, singing angels, adoring shepherds, kings holding gifts and harmless adoring animals. Yet in reality, it was a hard, cold, miserable time for this impoverished couple who were like refugees and soon became such, with almost nothing in the world as they fled the killer King Herod to Egypt.
They were most likely overwhelmed by the cold bitter weather and hunger like the refugees from the conflict in Syria today, fleeing the cruel “King” Assad. They have only hovels and nowhere else to live. No singing angels for them. 
It will be a tough and hungry Christmas in the Philippines for hundreds of thousands who are suffering deprivation like that of Jesus and his parents as they struggle to survive from lack of food, devastation from typhoons, human exploitation and trafficking of children.
For many true Christians, Christmas is the most important feast of the year. It celebrates the inalienable rights and dignity of all humans. Jesus of Nazareth brought these rights into the world, lived them and taught them. His birth, life, and death were a turning point in the history of the world. The human rights of the poor, the oppressed, the victims of violations, the landless, and the hungry were proclaimed in his sermon on the mount.
The rights of children were established when he said that children were the most important in the Kingdom of God, whoever accepts them accepts Him. He introduced a new era but it has taken two thousand years for these rights to be truly respected, implemented, and defended. Christmas is the time to re-establish these values and rights in our hearts and minds, in our families and society.
Christmas is a time for family reunions, sharing of gifts and symbols of life and friendship. It is a time for renewing bonds and strengthening our spiritual values, and reflecting on the mystery of life.
Easter is equally important, it celebrates the triumph of good over evil, life over death, the weak over the powerful, death and resurrection; it also has the painful story of the suffering, torture and execution of Jesus of Nazareth, a good and loving man, Son of God, Son of Man, friend to all, Messiah of the downtrodden and the oppressed. That is a painful, but powerfully inspiring story.
Yet the Christmas story of His birth, the outcast family, poor and homeless, a child born in a cave or a hovel with animals and impoverished peasants, is for many people, more special. It celebrates caring and love, friendship and family. It is inspiring too, that in such poverty, God brought about the birth of a great spiritual leader and teacher and prophet destined to challenge the ruling elites, defy the oppressors of the poor and bring values into the world that would change it and turn it inside out.
A special Thank You to all the good people who have supported the work of the People's Recovery, Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation (PREDA) in the Philippines.
May you have a blessed and Holy Christmas.
Columban Fr Shay Cullen has been a missionary in the Philippines since 1969 and is the founder of the People's Recovery, Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation (PREDA).
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Catholic Advent Resource (2015)Columban Mission Institute offers an online Advent Resource, Pathways: Hope for the Journey as an aid to your Catholic teaching and preaching. It helps us search for God’s presence, revealed over millennia in nature, cultures and people seeking wisdom. Each Sunday, from 29th November to Sunday 20th December, focuses on a particular theme. (more) |