Spreading the true Christmas joy

THANKS be to God, we still celebrate Christmas in our

country in a religious way. In an increasingly secularized world, our

way of celebrating Christmas indeed stands out.

             And our fervent prayer should be that this way of

celebration persists till the end of time and, in fact, should be

purified and should develop some more in terms of depth and substance.

  

            This means that we continue catechizing and evangelizing

others about the true spirit of Christmas, especially the young ones

who are now flooded with all sorts of spiritually numbing

technological wonders.

  

            Not that this Christmas spirit is incompatible with the

new technologies. It is just that we need to make everyone understand

that all the advantages our new technologies give us should be

inspired by this Christmas spirit for them to be truly good and useful

to us. This is always possible, and, in fact, should be done.

Otherwise, these new technologies will pose as a great danger to us, a

sweet poison indeed.

  

            When we are in front of a crèche, we can, for example, ask

the baby Jesus lying in the manger: “Why are you doing this to us?

What’s your purpose? What do you want us to know and learn from your

birth?”

  

            For sure, some ideas can come to our mind and can start an

intimate conversation in our mind and heart with the God who decided

also to become man to save us and to complete his creation of

ourselves, converting us into the image and likeness of God and

children of his, in spite of our weaknesses, mistakes and sins.

  

            Even if at the beginning of our reflections, the

considerations are rather shallow and narrow, we somehow can capture

something of the true Christmas spirit and joy that hopefully, if we

persist in our reflections, will give us deeper and more complete

understanding of Christmas.

  

            Only when we savor the answers to these questions would we

understand why we go through the bother of decorating our homes with

Christmas items, why we just would feel happy and festive, and willing

to give and receive gifts from others, etc.

  

            It’s important that we pause and reflect on the true

spirit of Christmas so that we don’t get easily carried away simply by

the peripherals of the Christmas season. We have to penetrate the true

meaning of Christmas that, in fact, would fill us with great joy and

thanksgiving as well as remind us of our duties and responsibilities.

            Yes, Christmas is about God determined to complete his

creation of ourselves as his image and likeness and children of his.

And not even our mistakes and sins can prevent him from pursuing his

divine love for us. The greatness of his love is such that it can

tackle the worst evil we can commit. If in the end, we find ourselves

not to be with him in heaven, it would not be because of him, but

rather because of us.

             When we would be inspired by the spirit of Christmas, we

would find many reasons to be happy and hopeful. We would find meaning

in everything in our life, including the problems, difficulties,

mistakes and sins that we may commit. We would feel confident and

reassured, especially when we face the unavoidable challenges, trials,

difficulties, and mistakes we can commit.

  

            This is how we can generate and spread the true Christmas

joy that should be with us all throughout the year. Christmas is not

only a season in our life. It should be with us in our whole life.