It is Christmas again and I have just been wondering what this time of the year means to us. We cannot negate that the birth of Jesus Christ is a historic event, one that happened over 2000 years ago. The christmas festivities we are holding around this time will enable us recall the circumstances sorrounding the birth of Jesus. But what does this mean to us today?
Do we have room for the God Man who on that cold night descended among his own, yet little did they realise it? Looking around us today, we will realise there are many who are hungry, neglected, homeless, etc. However, the real misery is for us to find ourselves loveless, especially when sorrounded by those dear to us, just like Jesus as he lay in that manger, with Mary and Joseph, helpless, unable to offer him a better place than the manger since there was no room in the inn in Bethlehem.
As we replay the events around the birth of Jesus, let us not forget the teachings of the Man Jesus, who taught us the logic of the God Jesus. "Love one another, just as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). If we do this, the many faces of Jesus in the sick, abandoned, homeless, hungry, thirsty, imprisoned and so on, may be able to take a fresh breath of the divine love that the child Jesus wants to share with us this Christmas and always.
May this Christmas season bring with it the peace, joy and inner conversion that each human heart longs for. May it, too, be a blessing to you and all your loved ones so that you may be able to join in the everlasting angelic choir and continue the hymn that was began that cold night in Bethlehem, in the ears of the shephereds: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to his people on earth! (Lk. 2:14).
