True joy of Christmas

It is just five days before the “Christmas” that we have been anxiously anticipating and frenziedly preparing for. But like the past Christmases it will swiftly be over even before we really enjoy it. The four candles of the advent wreath seem to melt faster this year as in the past years. Nevertheless, these Christmases have somehow enabled us to shift our focus from the glitz and glitter of its worldly decorations and practices to its deeper spiritual meaning. Indeed, the true meaning of Christmas joy is slowly dawning upon us.

How can we really experience the true joy that Christmas bring in our life? Can our Christmas be truly merry and bright by holding parties and putting decorations and lights? Up to now perhaps these questions still come up because we have not found the satisfactory answers from the manner we celebrate the occasion. The round of parties and the glitter of the tinsels may really keep us cheerful and aglow, but they last only until we wake up the next morning with a hangover. Thus, Christmas is truly more than just commemorating it with parties and merrymaking.

To be sure, nobody can really describe that feeling of true joy in our life. But somewhere, somehow and sometime we may have already experienced such joy especially during Christmastime except that we have not paid too much attention to it. We may have already seen a spark of great light in the midst of darkness enveloping our world.

In my case, a few rainy nights ago, I encountered once more those street children dangerously roaming the busy thoroughfare of our country. I heard a tap at my car window and saw two big sad eyes of a wet and shivering five-year-old girl peering at me. I thought that she must have been hopping from one vehicle to another without success for quite some time. So I opened my window and handed over several pesos which I know she did not really expect. As she received the sum of money, her smiling face and sparkling eyes exude joy and happiness that I have never seen before in my life.

Later, the same kind of faces of sick babies and toddlers greeted me at the National Children’s Hospital where our Rotary Club of Cubao West carries out its annual project of spreading cheers by having a Christmas party with them. Such joyful faces in the midst of poverty, suffering and pain radiated a special glow which is so heart tugging, unforgettable and indescribable.

Likewise unforgettable are the experiences at the Home for the Aged which our Club also visits annually during this time of the year. Upon entering their place, we are greeted with tearful and toothless smiles on their wrinkled faces as they strive to express their gratitude for still being remembered even once a year. Their supreme effort to stand up despite their tired and weary bodies weighed down by long years of hardship and toil just to hug us for a few moments somehow bring tears of joy all around the place that seem to be out of this world.

Another scene that lights up our life are those beaming faces of family members welcoming back with warm and tight embrace, their fathers, or mothers, or brothers, or sisters, or sons or daughters forced to work abroad for many years because of harsh economic conditions in our country. The glow in their faces, even if radiated only through the TV screens, somehow exude an extraordinary feeling of infectious happiness. Just watching them is enough to light up my life during this time of the year.

This kind of inexplicable joy is likewise felt during those Christmas parties in the Quezon City jail which our Rotary Club sponsors every year as part of its outreach program. This jail is one of the most congested jails all over the country with unbearable facilities, and where inmates cannot satisfactorily sleep because of lack of space. But even in such a deplorable place, the more than 3,000 inmates can still have a Christmas party with a program where they joyfully sing Christmas carols. Despite utter deprivation, the inmates still appear to be so cheerful and high spirited. The air radiating behind those bars is truly an inexplicable joy that inspires a more profound belief in a loving and merciful God.

But the most special and extraordinary experience recurring in our family not only during Christmas but also throughout the year are the regular visits to our only daughter Joyce when she was still alive but gravely ill of cancer. As we entered her room in a very somber and sad mood especially during Christmas, we saw her smiling face cheering us up and greeting us “Merry Christmas” despite being on the throes of excruciating pain and suffering caused by her cancer sickness. We simply could not comprehend how she was still concerned about us and  full of joy, trying to assuage 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.”

All those happenings and experiences particularly during Christmas time really tell us what true joy means. It is manifested and felt even during pain, suffering and utter deprivation of worldly possessions, for as long as we have a fleeting “glimpse of the eternal” among the persons touching our lives and events occurring around us.

SISON’S GREETINGS and a BLESSED MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all!