When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea the first Christmas night, the angelic voices that rang out from its distant hills echoed Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of goodwill.
This peace song has ever since been heard a million times over, every time Christmas comes at the year’s end. The whole world is aglow with Christmas cheer and goodwill during this festive season and rightly so since we are dealing with the Christian truth of God becoming man as an extraordinary sign of God’s love for mankind. We are told in the Bible that God so loved the world that He sent his only Son to save the world since He is a God of concern. Jesus Christ himself having loved his own, he had loved them the end, as the New Testament testifies. When the conscience of man resonates with the will of God, peace is its evident result. When this obedience or submission is disrupted, peace is disturbed with mankind and its world thrown into confusion.
Christmas is the festival of peace. It brings together the singing angels and the shepherds who kept their flocks by night even as the wise men from the East moved towards the place of Christ’s birth to the inn guided by a star. The appearance of the peace-child was good news to both the shepherds and the wise men. They both responded with joy hastening to the city of Bethlehem, the royal city. The song of the angels and the light of the star proved to be guidance for those who came searching for the child. Thus unexpectedly, the shepherds and the wise men form part and parcel of the Christmas story and bring their specific roles to play in enhancing the joy that is inherent to Christmas.
Christmas heralds an important message, a radical one at that, the world needs to hear today as it is engulfed daily in the shadows of fear, anxiety and doubt. Peace is possible in an atmosphere of order and tranquility. Wars, conflicts and divisions strain peace, which is the mother of prosperity and growth. Christmas does not refer to a secular type of peace where guns are silent and political ideologies are not at loggerheads and where there is no threat of war. True peace is the consort of well-being that is personal and social. It is when relationships are at their best with the diffusion of goodwill and mutual trust. The cry goes out today: “If you are brothers, drop your arms”. Let not the drums of war ever be heard that severely threaten harmony and peaceful living among nations, races, peoples and cultures. The common denominator of humanity must cement all interactive processes of social relations.
Christmas brings a prophecy of peace. It announces its possibility and eventual realization dependent on all adverse conditions impeding it being avoided with tact and prudence. Only wise men can achieve and enjoy the blessings of peace. The foolish will always risk putting it in jeopardy. Those who act rashly and are wanting in responsibility always endanger the roads and pathways to peace. History proves why peace is a very sensitive social issue and why it has to be won with the utmost care and concern. Prophecies need time for fulfillment and realization. It will keep the fires of hope and expectations ever burning in the minds and hearts of men who keep longing and thirsting for it. Peace can never co-exist with violence, ill-will and hatred. Love must conquer all. Compassion and empathy will win the day, if these are allowed to wield their power in all patience and good-will. Dispositions of kindness and openness to the other are absolute conditions for fostering the spirit of peace. Peace can also not exist in a milieu of economic adversity and poverty that deny the basic human needs: food, clothing and shelter.
Christmas is no mere feast of a birth of a child. Its impact is seen when thought out in terms of the message of the one who was born. A child has been given to us: his name is wonderful counsellor and prince of peace. Jesus of Nazareth therefore brings a message of peace and invites all to relish the blessings of peace. Christmas also takes us back to his wonderful soul-stirring words declared at the sermon of the Mount: it is the great charter of the Kingdom that he brought to us. In this new world, the rich will share with the poor, fewer people will agonize over injustices and hurts. Men and women will keep their conscience clear of sin and discord and will be blessed with purity of heart. The sick, blind, lame and deaf will bear in their hearts hopes of recovery, good health and healing.
Life will be imparted to all for the Lord of Christmas will bestow life in its fullness: in all its dimensions, physical, emotional and social. He will reach out to all including social outcasts, children, women and those subject to diseases. He will make no distinction between sinner and saint, Jew and Greek, those circumcised and those who are not. This was the social revolution that swept over all the cosmopolitan centres of ancient middle-east: Corinth, Colossae, Ephesus, Philippi, Galatia, Thessalonika and in the later epoch overtaking even imperial Rome. The walls came down and the roads began leading to Rome, the eternal city.
There will be in his Kingdom no discrimination based on language, race, social status and even gender: for all will be children of God redeemed in the blood he will shed at his death. The price of their salvation is no precious silver or gold but the gift of his own life offered in ransom for all sinners. What a wonderful story is this prophecy of Christmas! The Prince of peace, the Christ-child of Bethlehem hence became a child of promise and an incredible source of blessing for all nations. That is why when he was presented at the temple, another prophecy was uttered by another wise man: “This child is set for the rise and fall of many, for mine eyes have seen the salvation of God!”. The appearance of Jesus Christ in the humble abode of Bethlehem and later on in the village of Nazareth where he grew up in age, wisdom and grace could be none other than a veritable prophecy of peace and prosperity for mankind.
