The Broken Shepherd

I’d like to share this Christmas reflection passed on to me by Angeli and Gary Valenciano: “Long but sooooo nice,” promised Angeli.

At the former St. Thomas More chapel of Ateneo de Manila on Padre Faura, the celebrant was a Jesuit priest who had just finished his doctorate at Harvard University.

Christmas is when we celebrate the unexpected; it is the festival of surprise, Horacio de la Costa said in a seven-minute homily that has been quoted time and again.

“This is the night when shepherds wake to the song of angels; when the Earth has a star for a satellite; when wise men go on a fool’s errand, bringing gifts to a Prince they have not seen, in a country they do not know.

“This is the night when one small donkey bears on its back the weight of the world’s desire, and an ox plays host to the Lord of heaven. This is the night when we are told to seek our king, not in a palace, but in a stable.

“Although we have stood here, year after year, as our fathers before us, the wonder has not faded; nor will it ever fade; the wonder of that moment when we push open that little door, and enter, and entering find a mother who is virgin, and a baby who is God.

“Chesterton has said it for us all: The only way to view Christmas properly is to stand on one’s head. Was there ever a home more topsy-turvy than on Christmas, the cave where Christ was born?

“For here, suddenly, in the very heart of Earth, is heaven; down is up, and up is down; the angels look down on the God who made them, and God looks up to the things He made. There is no room in an Inn for Him who made room and to spare, for the Milky Way, and where God is homeless, all men are at home.

“We were promised a savior, but we never dreamed God Himself would come and save us. We know that He loved us, but we never dared to think that He loved us so much as to become one of us.

“But that is the way God gives. His gifts are never quite what we expect, but always something better than we hoped for. We can only dream of things too good to be true; God has a habit of giving things too true to be false. That is why our faith is a faith of the unexpected, a religion of surprise.

“Now, more than ever, living in times so troubled, facing a future so uncertain, we need such faith. We need it for ourselves, and we need to give it to others.

“We must remind the world that if Christmas comes in the depths of winter, it is that there may be an Easter in the spring.”

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During Christmas Day at our parish church, the Presentation of the Child Jesus, in BF Homes, the priest shared the story of a prep school teacher who would set up the Nativity scene or Belen every Christmas in her classroom for the last 30 Christmases past. She would tenderly unwrap each breakable piece, and ask her students to participate in the setting up of the Belen. In doing so she would retell the story of Christ’s birth to them. In time, the Belen pieces became precious with age. And the tradition of setting up the stable, the manger, Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus surrounded by the three Kings, the shepherds and their flock, priceless.

This year, one of the teacher’s rambunctious little students accidentally dropped one shepherd and it shattered into a multitude of pieces. You could have heard a pin drop as the little boy turned white as sheep.

Then the teacher said to the boy, “Come here and help me pick up the pieces carefully, and we shall put them together.”

Soon the other students started helping out, unbidden. There was silence in the room as together, they made the shepherd whole again. When they were through, the teacher told her class: “Children, Jesus came down from heaven on Christmas Day to save us, to put the pieces of our broken lives together again.”

* * *

Nikki Tang, CEO of DMark Corp. wins the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award 2016 for trading and wholesaling industry category.

In time, the children will grow up. But I am sure the teacher’s example of leading them as they glued together the broken pieces of the shepherd will be indelible in their minds.

Jesus Christ, through His grace and through the people He sends to love and support us, will always put the pieces of our lives together whenever they are shattered by pain or grief. He became Man to save us from being completely broken by sin.

And to make us whole again in the spring of our lives.

The Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA), organized by Enterprise Asia, is an authority that recognizes business leaders for their exceptional achievements in developing their ventures within their respective regions.

At the APEA 2016 event held recently at Dusit Thani Manila, Nikki Tang, CEO of DMark Corp., was given an award for the trading and wholesaling industry category. Award recipients were chosen not only because of business growth but by their investment in people, belief in responsible entrepreneurship, their leadership qualities and as well as recognition from their peers in the industry.

APEA is a non-government organization that aims to build a collective effort from honored business leaders in improving avenues for economic development through entrepreneurship across the region. It strives for fair and equal opportunities for emerging entrepreneurs and is supported by a panel of prominent industry and government leaders who believe and support the organization’s mission of championing entrepreneurship in Asia.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)