by Fr. Reid Shelton Fernando
The whole world is set to celebrate Christmas which is specially significant for Christians who believe in God. It is the story of divine is getting involved in the humanity itself to bring liberation to the humankind.
Rain soaked crib at St.Peter’s College in Bambalapitty, Sri Lanka ~ Picture by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai ~ via twitter.com/DushiYanthini
So it is a festival of human life which is the elevation of the human person to the highest level.
This story of divine getting involved in the human history is not ad hoc decision of the creator God but planned from the beginning when the human persons did disobeyed him and tried to claim equality with the divine person. So the first Christmas story is an involvement of the divine by becoming a human person. This fact is not a figment of the mind but a historical fact as found in the New Testament related in two of the four gospels.
As indicated above there was the preparation of the coming of God in humanity. It took several centuries to prepare the way as foretold by the prophets as related in the Old Testament.
When the time was fulfilled the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was chosen as the person to give birth to the Divine Son Jesus. This is a historical fact. It was a journey of becoming man and taking upon the burdens of the human to deliver the whole humanity from the clutches of sin, selfishness, sufferings and inhumanity so as to make the human person able to give an adequate reply to divine call of love.
Fr. Reid Shelton Fernando
Though the celebrations of Christmas festival came into the Christian world after several centuries probably in the 4th century C.E. but it was the death and resurrection of Jesus took priority in the worship of the divine. It was because of Easter that Christmas gained a momentum. Otherwise it would have been a mere birthday party. This is significant in the birth story of Jesus in Bethlehem that it was not merely a birth anniversary of Jesus
Unfortunately the Christmas significance has deviated from the original thrust and extended to be mere external celebrations. This fact had downgraded the total message of deliverance of humanity and continued to be irrelevant. The commercial world had taken over the cue and influenced even the Christian world to move out from religious dimension. The very core of the Christmas message should be life-giving and make the human person truly human in all the aspects of the life of the humanity.
What do we see in the world over and killings, denial of the dignity of humanity, desecration of life at all corners. The elements that deviate from the well-being of the human culture takes prominence in all aspects of human life in the socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions. The true of message of the Christmas is eliminated.
The call of peace with justice, equality, and love has no value. On the contrary craving for money, power and all the selfishness had become the order of the day. So there is corruption in all human endeavours so that the elite and the powerful rule the roost.
Therefore, Christmas though it is celebrated mainly by the Christians has failed to deliver the message to the world at large to imbibe in the world-changing qualities to take the centre stage.