Painting of: Viggo Johansen, Happy Christmas, 1891
Year C
Isaiah 62:11-12
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2: 15-20
So they hurried off and found
Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in the manger
During Christmas time, in Western cultures like Germany, England, and America three common activities shape the joy of Christmas: first, before Christmas night, people prepare the Christmas tree with its decorations, especially a star on the top of the Christmas tree. Usually, this preparation involves many people, and all people work together, especially in their spare time. The second one, after the Christmas mass, there will be the Christmas bread or cake shared with the others. If a guest comes to one’s home for example postman, or a neighbor the family gives Christmas bread they make, the parish usually also provides Christmas cake made by the mothers so that after the mass all of the members of the church enjoy and celebrate the nativity of christ by eating the Christmas bread or cake. The next activity is the exchange of Christmas gifts covered in ornamental papers between the children, or the parent gives the children the Christmas gift. These three common activities of Christmas have meanings which are many people do not know them. Let us see the meanings: The Christmas tree refers to the tree of life in paradise which was restored later by the tree of Calvary in the form of a cross. Meanwhile, the star on the top of the Christmas tree represents Jesus Christ as the light of the world and urges his disciples to become the light of the world. The candy cane hung up on the Christmas tree refers to the shepherd’s staff or shepherd stick which he used to guide the sheep. Jesus Christ is the shepherd who accompanies and delivers us to salvation. Historically, the red color on the candy is said to be Jesus’ blood and the white resembles life after salvation for Christians. The Christmas bread or cake shows the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey given by God to his Chosen people and his own body and blood as the Holy Eucharist, the heavenly food to his disciples by Jesus Christ. The exchange of gifts is proof that the nativity of Jesus is grace and a present for all of us and the universe. The nativity of Jesus is the most beautiful goodness to all creatures. All of these cultural activities elaborate the beauty and the mystery of Christmas.
What is Christmas? By the nativity of Christ, Christmas is Christ’s light shining on us this day; Christmas is the lord who born for us for our salvation. The prophecies told many centuries in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the Nativity of Jesus Christ. Christmas is God’s gift shared with all creatures because from now on, Immanuel -God be with us—is a reality and not a promise again but a realization of his promise. From now on, Jesus is present in history, in the present, and in the future. Since Christmas Christ’s light always shines on our heart. There is no more darkness and fear to be abandoned because Jesus always be present for us, there is no more coldness of desperation and hate because His light brings warnmess of hope and love. That is why we give thanks to this mystery of incarnation, we are joyful because of this tremendous fact. That is the real meaning of Christmas.
How Christmas is celebrated? Nowadays, influenced by the material thing and hedonism the celebration and the meaning of Christmas have shifted to the commercial thing. People reflect the joy of Christmas just by fulfilling the external thing and putting aside the real joy of Christmas. The result is that the Christmas season is only grasped with superficial meaning so that Christmas is only an annual ceremony with its banality of celebration; it is only joyful on the surface and not in the heart. In the logic of marketing, the heart of people is dominated by greed and competition for wealth and power, the darkness hovers on the cloud of the heart.
Of course, the joy of Christmas cannot emerge in such a heart. The joy of Christmas rises from the heart that believes and receives the mystery of incarnation: that God becomes a man.
It is said that the baby Jesus was lying in the manger. A manger where the baby Jesus was lying can be seen as the heart of every man. The proper place of the nativity of Jesus is in the heart. In the mystery of Christmas, Christ is born in every heart that embraces the mystery of God. Jesus is born in the heart of every person who relies on hope, love, and faith for their life. Christ born in the heart refers to the grace that has been told Saint Paul: the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy. St. Thérèse of Lisieux affirms it: A God who became so small could only be mercy and love. Holding this fact, then, all the Christmas stuff and Christmas activities will be denigrated if Christ is not born in the hearts.
How should we do so that Christ is born in our hearts? We can imitate the shepherd because the shepherds are our model for celebrating Christmas. The news of the birth of Christ is addressed to the shepherd by the angel and immediately they went to Bethlehem Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us. Why the news of Christ’s birth is informed to them first; why did the shepherds go in haste and find Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger; why did they believe and accept the news of the angel and trust the message and after informing the news they returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them? The shepherds are the just men and the men who have upright hearts. As it is told by the Psalm, light dawns for the just and gladness for the upright of heart. The light and the gladness are Jesus Christ which are given to the sherpherds. With their upright heart they have the courage to find and to see the baby Jesus. Christmas asks us to imitate the shepherds by being just men, and the upright hearts. By being the just men and having the upright hearts, one finds Mary and Joseph and the baby, who is lying in the manger in one’s heart. Within the spirit of the shepherds we know and feel the noble of Christmas. Then we say to the world that Christmas is not a superficial celebration but Christmas is the Christ’s light shining on us this day, our savior comes in the form of baby Jesus. True joy emerges from the true heart so that we glorify and praise Jesus for all we have heard and seen, just as our hearts tell it to us. St. Paul VI said: “We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and us. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.”
The shepherds set a paradigm of Christmas evangelization: to them, the Good News is proclaimed; they come and experience it firsthand; they depart and share what they “had heard and seen” with others. Like the shepherds since Christmas, we proclaim the word of God for the world because Christmas means that the word of God becomes flesh. Christmas is Christ’s light coming to us so that we become the light for the other. Because Christmas is a gift of God for us, we share that gift to the world by doing goodness to all creature and living in virtue. And for this Christmas evangelization, we shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of the LORD, and you shall be called “Frequented”, a city that is not forsaken.
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