The meaning of Christmas

Again another year is coming to an end and the yuletide season is with us again.

As with all Xmas seasons, the hawks are out to commercialize the birth of a man who never sold anything, banished traders and shylocks from the church and detested bad tax collectors.

Although he was for the poor, his birthday is decidedly a money-spinning venture. Everyone is trying to make a kill from Hamper designers to corporate gift vendors, to contractors, to tailors and clothes designers. Its truly amazing how everyone is trying to make some money off Jesus while his message of peace, love, happiness, high moral values, harmony, selflessness, sacrifice and humanity is missing in the mix.

Unfortunately for us all, this is when we are all stampeded by the season, we all seem prepared to give everything up, spend as much as we can, cheat others and generally be led into perfidy.

What really should Christmas mean to Christians at this time? I have always wondered about the meaning of the season for different people. Have we as Christian traders decided that this is when we should show love and if we have made enormous profits during the year then begin to worry about how to show love, perhaps a huge percentage off our sale prices? But this is when a lot of shops pad their prices and make even bigger profits because they believe there is a need by all and sundry and they have no choice but to buy.

This is when there are sale prices everywhere described deceptively as Xmas sales. Everything is 50%. Be careful. I have found that there are very few genuine sales at this time. This is because it is usually stock that no one wanted throughout the year, its broken or its no longer pretty.

The birth of Jesus Christ signposts the beginning of our joy because he came to wipe out our sins and ransom us by making the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus’ birth also validates the saying “if God says Yes, no man can say No”. He was sought for many years by learned men of the church. Who is this Jesus? How dare he think he knows more than us? He was attacked; his teachings were challenged until finally in a mob reaction he was crucified. But over two thousand years later, he lives with his name on every Christian lip and well known across the world.

Here is a man who was crucified with the worse of men and yet he forgave. The teachings of Jesus’ message of forgiveness must never leave us as we struggle to make sense of a complicated world, of a world full of people who are mostly interested in what they can get from you, a selfish world, a world where love no longer exists, a world at war, a world with no respect for children or women, a world nearly devoid of humanity. It is against this backdrop that we are asked to forgive, an attribute which Jesus stood for throughout his life and even at his passing. We are called to forgive especially at Christmas because it is a season for sharing, a season of peace, a season of giving and a season of love.

What else are we to promote at Christmas? Charity. How much of that chicken can you eat? That cow that was given to you because of your position, how many can you eat? Your hampers are all over the place. How many can you benefit? Who have you touched? How many persons have you fed? Whose life have you changed for the better?

In my church, Holy Trinity Catholic church Abuja and in all catholic churches for that matter, we have St. Vincent de Paul where you are encouraged to donate food items, clothes etcetera. You should not send clothes eaten by moths, damp, unclean, dirty or torn. As Mother Teresa used to say, don’t give what you do not want to the poor. It is on the day of distribution in the church at Christmas eve, and on New year’s eve when St. Vincent de Paul gives all they got from good donors that you know that humanity is religion and colour blind. Moslems, Christians, Atheists gather in my church to get our widow’s mite, its beautiful to behold. The crowd is amazing, a motley crowd, a sea of heads, all joined by the love shown and the beauty of non-discriminatory generosity.

Together we must preach peace. Together we must hold our hands this Christmas and shout out the message of peace from the rooftops. No more killings, no more maiming. Peace, humanity, understanding, relationships, tolerance is the message of the Prince of Peace this Christmas and every Christmas since he was born.

It is not about your clothes or your beauty. It’s not about how rich you are or how tall you are. It’s about your soul, who you touched, whose life you improved.

Merry Xmas to all my faithful readers and a joyous New Year.

Thank you for keeping the faith.