There is no
other event that has affected history as much as the birth of Jesus. World
History today is divided into BC and AD based on the birth of Christ. No wonder
we call Christmas a universal event. The
world celebrates the feast with the joy as much as we Christians do. But, just
imagine what would happen if the Church wanted to stop celebrating Christmas on
December 25. I am sure the world would continue celebrating Christmas because
it is a great season of income for the businessmen; season of relaxation for
students and teachers and the list could go on. But now I pose a question:
Christmas – for whom?
The
immediate answer, probably, running in our minds is, ‘for all’ because Christ
came for all. Basing my reflection on the Gospels, especially the narration of the
birth of Christ, I affirm that the birth of Christ was not known to all, even
among those who knew about this incarnation of God many were not able to find
Him. According to the Gospels, two groups
rather two cities did not find the Babe in the Crib.
The first
city is Bethlehem. It is a paradox that the city that hosted the First Christmas
did not witness the event. It is interesting to know that St. Joseph was not
able to get a place for his wife in travail or a home in his hometown. Why? We
read in Luke2:7 that there was no place for them in the Inn. Now the problem is
with the word ‘inn’. The Greek word that is used here is ‘Kataluma’ or ‘Katalima’,
which denotes not only inn but also a special room, a kind of guest room or a
store room. Usually, any woman in labour would be admitted there since
encountering blood is an act of untouchablity for the Jews. Now, this room was
not available for our Blessed mother as the city was filled with guests who had
already registered their names.
And so, Bethlehem,
the house of Bread as it literally means, did not have a proper place for the
Bread from Heaven. I assume the city was not aware of the coming of the
Redeemer since it clung on to the law rather than show love for its townsman.
The second
city that was not able to have the glimpse of the Heavenly Babe was Jerusalem.
As the president or the prime minister represents a country, King Herod
represents Jerusalem. Moreover, it is also given in Matthew 2:3 that along with
Herod all Jerusalem was frightened of the arrival of the new king of Jews. What
blinded his eyes, from reaching the manger that received the messiah, was his craze
for power. Furthermore, his passion for position led him to massacre the
innocent without a grain of compassion in his heart. And so, the city of
Jerusalem could not hear the ‘Gloria’ on the first Christmas day.
Now it is
clear that when people have recourse more to law and not to love and are filled
with passion for power rather than with compassion, they are unable to meet
Christ in the crib.
The next
important fact is how two kinds of people found Jesus: the wise-men and the
shepherds.


The two
kinds of people who were able to meet the Saviour in the stable were persons of
love and compassion. And this is probably the answer to the question that I
asked in the beginning, “For whom is Christmas?”
I feel that
to celebrate Christmas worthily we need to be people of love and compassion as
the love of God leads him to be one among us and His compassion for us gave
meaning to His acceptance of the Cross. Though our logic pushes us towards law
and our reasoning may give passion, the true meaning of Christmas is in the
opposite – in Love and in Compassion.
My wish for
all of us is that we celebrate and share the joy of Christmas with love and
compassion for one another.
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