Real side of Christmas

As we celebrate Christmas Eve once again we tend to look back at the many Christmases that have come and gone and realized that in our advancing years, we have somehow gradually shifted our focus away from the glitz and glitter of the day’s worldly trappings to its deeper spiritual meaning. The passing of many Christmases has indeed enabled us to gradually experience the feeling of true joy and happiness that Christmas is supposed to bring.

Actually, this feeling of happiness can be experienced all throughout the year and not only during Christmas time. We are not just aware of it because our attention is diverted by our worldly cares and concerns brought about by our self-centeredness and weak faith.

Reviewing our past Christmases, I cannot help but recall those times when we experienced the extraordinary joys that give a fleeting “glimpse of the eternal,” the joys that transcend the gaiety and glee offered by this world of crass materialism and consumerism.

One such experience repeatedly recurring especially during this time was our visit to our only daughter Joyce who was then already gravely ill of cancer. My wife and I could not forget her smiling face as we entered her room on Christmas day cheering us up and greeting us a “Merry Christmas” even as she was already suffering extreme pain caused by her sickness. We could not really forget how, in her most agonizing affliction, she was still so concerned about us, trying to lighten us up and to assure us that everything is all right and that soon she will be home safely in another place “where pain, suffering and death will be no more.” She wanted us to shed no more tears for Joyce but only tears of joy. Such joyful face radiating a special glow in the midst of extreme pain is really unforgettable because of the unique kind of happiness she projects.

And this kind of smiling face is no different from the smiling faces of the sick babies and toddlers at the National Children’s Hospital where our Rotary Club of Cubao West conducts its annual gift-giving to spread Christmas cheers. The sight of those little children afflicted with all sorts of sickness and other infirmities still exuding happiness with their pure and unadulterated smile is truly so unforgettable and moving enough for us to shed tears of joy. A different kind of joy that we feel at the boisterous Christmas parties we usually attend.

And talking about Christmas parties, I could not help but recall at this time, the parties I used to attend at the Quezon City jail, a congested place with unbearable facilities where inmates barely have time to sleep for lack of space. Even under such an inhuman and deplorable condition, the more than 3,000 inmates most of whom are detained merely because they cannot afford to post bail for the petty crimes they have been charged, could still manage to organize a Christmas party, conduct a Christmas program and joyfully sing Christmas carols. Despite being deprived of freedom based on mere suspicion, they could still radiate an inexplicable joy that inspires deeper belief in a compassionate and merciful God. 

From these experiences, we have learned that true joy can be found even in the middle of pain, suffering and utter deprivation for as long as we are able to have a “fleeting glimpse of the eternal” among the persons we have encountered and the events occurring around us.

So now the other side of Christmas is dawning upon us. Our focus is no longer so much on those parties, gifts, and shopping sprees but on the birthday Celebrant Himself and His wish for all of us on His birthday. At this time we celebrate Christmas with a motif that always include the Birthday Celebrant Himself. Our view of the Babe in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes is no longer obstructed by our cares and concerns of this world and our urge for material sufficiency. Now we are feeling another kind of joy that lies not on how much is our earthly possessions but in how much space we have reserved in our hearts for the most important and only Honoree of the event. Our Christmas celebration seems to be more joyful now because we focus more on the One who give us true joy.

And maybe this is also the growing feeling among many others especially in our country. And one simple sign here is the many Christmas Belen in our Christmas decors. The Belen is a reproduction of the stable where Mary gave birth to Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lay in a manger because there was no more room for them in the inn. The inn and the stable are the two places that figured prominently in the birth of our Lord. The inn is “the rendezvous of the worldly, the rallying place of the popular and the successful”, while the stable is “a place of the outcasts, the ignored and the forgotten” as Bishop Fulton Sheen said. The fact that God chose to come to this earth in the stable proves and confirms that we can find the real joy of Christmas not in the “inns” of this world but in the stable found in every humble and caring heart.

A BLESSED AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

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