The gift of Christmas, beyond the festivities
Beyond the jingle bells, balloons and bon-bons, beyond the cakes and the cards, beyond Santa Claus and the reindeer, Christmas is a historical manifestation of God’s love which is, among other qualities unending, unfailing, unlimited and unmerited.
Freely as we receive this divine, merciful, compassionate and unfailing love, we need to freely give it to others by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is Christmas. In this way while giving gifts to others we ourselves become a gift to them.
On that Holy Night God also worked in a way that many do not understand. For instance at that time, the Jewish religious leaders considered the shepherds as outcasts because they did not observe the Sabbath laws and hundreds of other rules that had been imposed on the people. But while the shepherds watched their flocks by night, God’s angels appeared to them and gave these poor marginalized shepherds the Good News about the birth of the Messiah at a stable in Bethlehem. At first the shepherds were terrified but the angel said “Fear not, glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and people of the whole world”. A significant feature here is that the shepherds, though rejected by the Jewish religious leaders, believed that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in a cattle shed and not in a palace as most Jews would have expected.
So the shepherds immediately took the best gifts they had and went to the cattle shed to worship the King of Kings whom they saw lying in the manger. In this context a carol which is considered a children’s song also has significance. It is the carol titled, The Little Drummer Boy. “Come they told him the new born King to see, Our finest gifts we bring to lay before the King”. When the Little Drummer Boy went there he said to the Holy Family “Baby Jesus, I am a poor boy too, I have no gifts to bring, shall I play for you on my drum”. The carol continues, “Mary nodded, the ox and lamb kept time, “I played my drum for him I played my best for him. Then He smiled at me, me and my drum”. Every line ends with the sound of the drum “Pa rum pum pum pum” . More significantly it gives an important message – when we give God what we have even as little as playing the drum as “Pa rum pum pum pum” He is pleased and will smile at us.
Christmas is love, Christmas is peace, a time for hatred and violence to cease. In Chapter 15 of St. John’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus also gives us the essence of Christmas and Christianity. He says “While I live in you, you must also live in me and do what God tells you to do.” That means to discern and do God’s will in whatever we do from small things in the family to greater things in the parish community, our workplaces, our profession, our nation and in the world. As high as the sky is above the earth so is God’s plan and will, higher and greater than ours. God has created us in His image and likeness to eventually become like Him, but He has given us the freedom to choose. We could achieve His great purpose by doing His will, or we could do our own selfish and self-centered will which will damage our lives and the lives of those with whom we associate. That is why the Lord Jesus says in Chapter 15 of St. John’s Gospel “Greater love than this no one has than he or she who gives up his or her life for others”.
In this same chapter the Lord sums up all the commandments and gives us one single commandment “Love one another as I love you”. On the cross at Calvary he showed us the meaning of this. In other words he tells us “even if you betray, deny or desert me, even if you whip me, strip me and crucify me as a criminal of criminals, I will still love you because my nature is love.” That is why God the Father draws the Incarnation to its climax through the Resurrection and Eternal life which God offers to people of all races and religions – people who love one another freely, cheerfully and generously and without expecting anything in return.
That is Christmas.
As South Africa’s well known Archbishop Desmond Tutu says “God is not a Christian.” Some hard line Christians will be amazed or shocked by this statement but it is true as the Lord Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the fraudulent or wicked people doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even atheists do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.
In God’s eyes that is our perfection and the perfection of Christmas – to have divine mercy and compassion on others, bless those who curse us, help those who hurt us and pray for those who persecute us.
In the Beatitudes the Lord Jesus says ‘Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God’. What is a pure heart? It is a heart that sincerely wishes to discern and do God’s will in all things – essentially God’s will is to love one another as He loves us, be merciful and compassionate and ready to forgive even seventy times seven. We know that to err is human, to forgive divine. So when we unconditionally forgive 500 times we become so many times more divine and in our lives, deep within, we will have faith and hope, love, peace and joy, patience and kindness, meekness, self-control and faithfulness.
So let this be our Christmas. As we sing in the popular carol made famous by Boney M, ‘people can live forever more because of Christmas Day’. May this be our Christmas gift or wish and the gift we give to others.