Christmas is a Gift!
With every day passing, every week winding up, our world seems to fall into deeper darkness. Day after day announces wars, atrocities, increase of crime, crumbling cities, inflation, partisan divides, poverty and hunger. About 970 million people around the world suffer from mental illness; there is a flagrant of loss of faith. In each and every instance around the world, there is a fellow human being in pain: a woman, a man or a child potentially going through the worst that life has to offer, often feeling alone and abandoned. Now let me tell you the Good News: even if you are in terrible pain, and wherever you may be, this Christmas is still for you. Even if you are grieving because you lost someone dear to you. God is with you. Even if you have doubted, you have failed to pray, to trust in him in those times of difficulties, He is here for you. Happy Christmas!!!
Thanks be to God! Christmas is a Good news – God with us. A Good News of God’s love who sent us his Son, the word made flesh to us (Cf. John 3:16). Christmas reminds us of the gift of Jesus who is coming to give us love, hope and joy. This is the message which doesn’t change from year to year. It is the same Good News yesterday and today! When there is so much bad news and devastation in the world, this is good news worth celebrating! Jesus is our gift; He is our helper and our salvation. (Ps 27:1-3). Christmas is here to remind us that we all need help. Even the most privileged one among us is lost at times. We need God and Christ is indeed the reflection of the splendor and the fullness of the Father. Christmas is the light that shines in darkness. December 25 was the pagan celebration of the sun. For us Christians, Christ is the true Sun of justice, “The Light of the world” (John 9:12).
Every little help, every little assistance, every gesture of love for others, especially for the homeless, the less fortunate than ourselves, brightens the darkness of our world. Whatever you have done for the “little one of mine” (Mt 25: 40), be it, a gift of a toy, a plate of food, a gift card to someone in need, contribution to the outreach program, contribution to the Church and to charity, building the orphanage, feeding or clothing an orphan, a gift of tuition, a visit to the sick, the prisoners, the elderly in need of a visit, a word of consolation, all these have brought Christ’s brightness into our world. That is the meaning of Christmas.
That is the meaning of Christmas. As one who grew up in very abject poverty in a village named Ebomkop in Cameroon, the story of Christ born in manger speaks louder to humanity. He wanted to be one with sinners and with the poor so we can live in solidarity with one another. No one is supposed to fight the battle of life alone, be it financially, spiritually, or emotionally! Christmas is the gift of Christ's presence in our lives. Our positive human interactions can ease a troubled mind, a troubled family, a troubled community, a troubled organization and a troubled world. Christmas is a gift: a gift of salvation that no human can give; a gift of peace; a gift of love; a gift of mercy; a gift of grace; a gift of joy; and whenever we become apostles of the Christian virtues, we celebrate Christmas in our world. This is indeed the beginning of the new world.
Blessed Christmass!
Fr. Georges Roger BIDZOGO sac