Christmas is the grand feast of the wretched and marginalised of the Earth. Of course, the rich can also celebrate it but only in solidarity with the poor.
The deepest and ultimate meaning of history stems from incarnation. History is a useless passion without incarnation. History is full of horror and terror without it. Incarnation incorporates history in its unfolding. Incarnation invests in history out of unconditional love, compassion and mercy. Incarnation investigates history out of clemency. God disincarnates from his own self in order to incarnate in our midst. God leaves his heavenly abode in order to pitch his tent amongst us.
Love indwells amongst us, and takes flesh in the midst of us. Love makes its tent amongst us. Love makes a permanent abode in our slums, shanties, and shabby shelters in order never to leave us. One does not need to be a holy person to recognize it. A sinner’s recognition of this truth is the beginning of a new prospect of a new life.
Love desires reaching out, stretching out. Love thrives on endless expansion without frontiers. The one who does not love is a black hole, contaminating everything around oneself and destroying oneself and everything and everybody else. By nature love has to explode constantly; love must burst out, flare forth, explode and expand. What will not explode will implode and destruct itself. The one who loves is a supernova that gives birth to thousands of new suns, comets, planets, moons and asteroids.
Even star dust stems from God and hence contains sparks of divinity. The dust is a sacred reality. A star which was made of dust showed the wise men where Christ had been born. Dust reflects the wisdom of God. God is present even in dust. The true significance of anything is not in its size. The tiniest particle possessing a universal significance for the love of God is a cosmic event, a planetary phenomenon.
The more you share, the more you become yourself. When you love, you desire to go beyond yourself, expand yourself or extend yourself for the sake of those whom you love and care for. You do things joyfully you have never ever done when you are in love. For God, it was a joy to create us and love us. So how could he not become one of us?
The divine nativity is the death of human captivity. The moment of his birth is the moment of a new birth for humanity and the memory of it is the memory of joy and peace, light and love. We have no future without keeping that memory alive. The glory of human existence is in its best memories. Nativity liberates us from captivity in all its myriad manifestations. Christ is the true light which yearns and burns in our hearts. Without his nativity, there is no real freedom in our lives.
Christmas day is a decisive day, a day to make some tough decisions. Every decision we make is either for God or against God. There is no neutral ground. Life is never neutral. There is no third possibility. Either we live in and with God or we do not. And if we sincerely feel that we do not, then we can always go back to the divine path. Every decisive day is a joyful day if we know how to discern in God. Decision-making is not a reason for fear and trembling.
Every crisis is a spiritual opportunity for us to deepen our character and broaden our horizons; the deeper the crisis, the greater the opportunity for our spiritual growth.
It is true that people seldom change or some will never change significantly. We need to look at such people very sympathetically and not judgementally. Even if they do not want to change, they deserve our love, patience and sympathy. People are indeed lazy, selfish, complacent, greedy, evil, cruel, vengeful, hateful, arrogant, stupid, silly, idiotic, loathsome, banal, ruthless, lustful and weak. But still, we have to love them precisely because people are such. To redeem is to reveal our true identity, our true homeland. Our true homeland is to live in God at each second. Homeland is beyond one’s country of origin. The one who has found one’s homeland is well on the way to their Fatherland (or Motherland). Home is God, our real home is God. All the other homes we try to dwell in are slums and shanties, tents and huts. No other home can truly satisfy our homelessness. Searching for God is longing for our real home. The deeper the search for God, the more intense the at-homeness.
We feel at home when we live and move in God. Every day we must go in search of this home. The real shelter is divine shelter. The real shade is divine shade and the divine shade will never shake. So we can have a true foretaste of heavenly joy here and now. That is the true spirit and joy of Christmas. The birth of Christ is the beginning of our heavenward journey. Right now, let us take the first step towards it.
