The Pandemic Christmas and New Possibilities
Scripture:
John 1:1-14,
Luke 2:15-20,
Luke 1:1-14.
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
On this Christmas Day, we have a text from the Gospel according to Saint John (John 1:1-14) for our reflection:
“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 him 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.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
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.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
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.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.”
Let us start our reflection with a real incident.
“Merlin, get me some tea.”
That is Merlin’s husband Kevin, who lost his job due to COVID-19 lockdown.
He succumbed to COVID-19 himself soon after he lost his job.
It was a double bombing in a poverty-stricken family.
He suffers now with post-COVID treatment.
Merlin is fearful.
There are many questions in her mind: what will happen to Kevin?
What will happen to her family in future?
What will the future of her only child?
With all these questions and without any clear-cut answers, she takes up a job as a maid to support her small family since Kevin lost his job and he is under post-COVID-19 recovery.
She looks around.
Her neighbours are busy in preparation for Christmas, such grand decorations, with such expensive dress materials, smiles on their faces.
At the same time, she remembers her own family with minimum, struggling to live with two times food in a day.
She knows that she should not compare the neighbours with her family.
The baby Jesus comes for all.
Yet she cannot help but wonder if all that expense is really necessary to welcome him to our hearts and in our houses.
She knows that He comes for the saint and the sinner alike, for the rich as well as the poor yet in her moments of despair added with the pandemic and job loss, she sometimes begins to doubt His existence.
Christmas has always been the most joyous occasion in her poverty-stricken life - before her marriage and even after her marriage.
The cleaning and white-washing of the house, the making of the few sweets and the visitors they receive are occasions to express love and sharing.
It is nice to have someone over, it also makes the entire family happy to talk to someone else for a change and not just wallow in their despair.
It is the season when she knowingly tries to be extra patient with Kevin and more forgiving.
The Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ changed the world.
She feels extremely happy looking at His serene face on the Cross and in the manger.
The look on the faces of His parents is loving and serene even after their struggle for a place and birth in the dirtiest place in the house, the Manger.
His birth radiates the special message for her and for her poor family during the pandemic.
She easily identifies with His birth that is stable sans royal trappings, sans magnificent ceremonies.
It was a people’s birth, a birth for the other.
It also is the birth of love, goodness and giving.
This birth of Jesus Christ in a manger loudly proclaims that the poor matter, the homeless matter, the migrants matter, the struggles of women matter, the struggle of people matter to each one of us.
This Christmas is not like the other Christmas or other celebrations.
This Christmas is for the other.
The above real incident brings the question in my mind: what is the true meaning of Christmas in our own lives and in the pandemic context?
It is a perennial question.
It is a question heard often during the Christmas season year after year, from pulpits, TV personalities, newspaper writers, and just ordinary people bewildered by the hectic pace of the season.
It seems a little strange that as popular as this season seems to be, we should continually have to ask that question.
The meaning of Christmas seems to be forever in danger of being obscured by all the commotion and promotion of the season.
Perhaps we continue to ask the question for fear that the answer will be lost, or already is lost, in the shuffle.
So,
The search for the true meaning of Christmas is a recurring one.
And yet, too often the answers we provide, even from the church, are more sentimentality, comfortable traditions than they are any deep reflection on the significance of the Incarnation for humanity.
It is not about the ‘spirit of giving’ or the ‘quest for global peace’, or the ‘importance of family’, or the beauty of a snow-decorated ‘silent night.’
Sure, we can immediately say that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.
But…
Exactly, why is that fact so significant beyond the affirmation of a historical fact or a creedal confession?
How does or how should, the meaning of Christmas impact our lives on a daily basis as the people of God?
Perhaps for an answer, we need to return to the biblical narratives, apart from all the traditions that we have heaped around them to make them more entertaining and more coherent to modern ways of thinking to make meaning of Christmas during the pandemic.
At the heart of the nativity narratives in both Matthew and Luke, is a simple fact: amid the struggle of a people who had longed for many years for God to act in the world in new ways, and God came to be with them in a way that totally identified himself with us, as human beings.
Amidst the most unlikely of circumstances, to the most unlikely of people, God became human for the salvation of all people, and the entire world.
I personally also meditate that the true meaning of Christmas is about possibility.
It is not the kind of possibility that comes from a confidence in our own skill, knowledge, ability, or a positive mental attitude.
It is a possibility that comes solely from the fact that God is the kind of God who comes into our own human existence to reveal himself and call us to himself.
It is a possibility that is so surprising at its birth that we are caught unaware, and so are left with wonder at the simplicity of its expression in this infant child.
It is a possibility that is easily symbolised by a helpless infant that has nothing of its own by which to survive; but an infant that, because He is Immanuel (God with us), will forever change the world and all humanity.
It is this same God who has promised to be with us, with His people, with the Church and with us individually, as we live as His people in the world.
It is not just hope, as if it were wishful thinking that things will get better when they cannot.
It is hope incarnated into flesh, a hope that can be held in a mother’s arms, a hope that expresses a reality that will live beyond endings and death itself.
It is the hope, the possibility, which springs from impossible and insignificant beginnings, infused with the power of God through the Holy Spirit that will blossom into a light to the nations.
It is this possibility, this Incarnate Word, this Almighty God that we celebrate at Christmas.
And we do celebrate with a confidence that a child who is the Son of God born not of our own desire for it, but for the purpose it has from the birth of a child over 2,020 years ago.
Once we understand the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ among us, we celebrate with those who have nothing…rather than otherwise.
It is in the right spirit of the season that we try to discover what is real Christmas in our lives.
God had sent many prophets, priests, messengers and angels but people ignored them and He sent His only Son Jesus Christ.
It is given in every Christmas time.
Do we ever think of ‘why?’
The answer lies in your heart when we hear…whisper of Child Jesus in the manger.
I come as an ordinary.
My parents are ordinary couple struggling for survival.
I was born in a manger.
I am not a food for animals.
I am the bread of life for all of you.
I know a couple who had no child after their 10 years of marriage.
It was a struggle for a woman to live with the stigma of being barren in the Indian society.
She could manage to live her life with the emotional support of her husband.
He loved her so much that he ignored all negative voices that came from his family about his wife.
He was forced for the second marriage.
He refused the proposal.
One day, the wife was found with the good news that she was pregnant.
This news brought joy to the entire family.
She was cared and supported.
She delivered a baby girl.
There was a grand celebration at home.
Everything was alright till the child was three years old.
The child had a brain tumour.
Within two months, the child died with all medical care.
The wife went into depression.
She behaved strangely.
It was a bright day and she was walking in front of her house.
There was a voice from the garbage bin next to her compound wall.
The crying voice was heard again and again.
She ignored first.
She could hear continually the crying child.
She went out and found a new born child thrown into the garbage bin.
she took the child in her hands and embraced the child.
The beautiful smile of a new born child gave her a new hope to live her life, a new possibility to love the humanity.
Yes, dear sisters and brothers,
She founded an NGO for abandoned children.
It is the tenth anniversary of her organisation.
She became a mother of hundred and seven children today.
She found her hope.
She saw the possibilities in her struggle.
Our God is the God of impossible.
He came to us.
He dwelt among us.
He gave us eternal life.
He lives in us as the Spirit as he was in the apostles.
He promised us that He is with us till the end of our age.
In this Christmas, let us not lose our hope.
In this Christmas, let us discern the new possibilities, so that we can make this world a beautiful place to live with love and forgiveness.
In this Christmas, let us realise that the true meaning of Christmas is also to be the presence of Jesus to others, who are in need of us, who are depressed, who are marginalised, who are treated badly and suppressed physically, spiritually and psychologically, who need our presence in their sorrow and to give the message of God’s love to them.
It is an invitation…for us to help our Incarnate Word to pitch his tent among these people identifying ourselves with them.
Let us make a difference.
Let us add the real meaning of coming of Jesus in our lives and others.
Finally, I firmly believe that the Incarnation is a simple fact that amid the struggle of each one of us, who long for many days, weeks, months, and years for God to act in new ways in our struggling lives and in the COVID-19 world, the Incarnate Word, comes to be with us in a way that totally identified himself with us, as human beings giving us new hopes and possibilities.
Wish you a Happy Christmas…
May the Incarnate Word dwell among us and in each one’s heart radiating his love by our words and actions so that we may be another incarnate for our neighbours.
May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen…
