Christmas :
The Christmas Mystery
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| Joy of Christmas |
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| Fr. Sebastian Thottippatt |
Christmas 2016
Christmas
is the celebration of a mystery and not merely the celebration of the Birthday
of Jesus Christ. Obviously at Christmas our thoughts turn to Bethlehem and all
that took place there on that first Christmas night. As Mary and Joseph huddled
together around the newborn Child, they were painfully aware of the poverty and
discomfort of the shelter for animals they were in but in stark contrast to
that they faced the awesome mystery of God who had become flesh under their
very eyes. It was Emmanuel, God-with-us, who lay in the manger surrounded by
animals and the shepherds who had come to pay him homage, as told to them by
the angels. The creator God was visibly present within his creation in the Word
made flesh. That was the Good News that was announced to the shepherds. And this
indeed is the mystery that we seek to grapple with at Christmas as life unfolds
before our eyes in its ordinariness. It is the mystery of God who is with us as
we continue our journey of life along diverse paths. The joy of Christmas is
the awakening to this reality in the heart of life.
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The arduous journey of 70 miles
to Bethlehem in the last month of Mary’s pregnancy. |
Christmas
is not a fairy tale of old but a truth that every human being is invited to
realize in the depth of his or her being that we are soaked through and through
with the presence of God in a most mysterious way. It was not easy for Mary and
Joseph to allow this truth to sink into them. It began with the overwhelming
challenge offered to them individually to accept into their lives a child born
not in the manner of all human beings but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Then they had to make the arduous journey of 70 miles to Bethlehem in the last
month of Mary’s pregnancy. The impossible became possible because they put their
absolute faith in God setting aside ordinary human reasoning and the tradition
they were familiar with, thus making room for God’s mystery to descend into
their lives. Mary and Joseph surrendered themselves to the will of God which
was not within the range of their understanding. They become witnesses of the union
of divinity with humanity in ordinary human life.
The
same path is open for us too in order to usher in the joy of Christmas into our
lives. We are invited to make way for grace to touch our lives and let God make
a breakthrough into our hearts. It is not the entry of someone outside of us
but rather it is an awakening to a presence that fills our being all the time.
“It is in him that we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
Unfortunately, Christians are more accustomed to worship Christ than follow him
because that is usual teaching they are given by the Church. But Jesus had prayed:
“that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me. Thus they shall
reach perfection in unity so that the world shall know that you have sent me…”
(Jn: 17:22-23). Nevertheless we human beings continue our lives as if we have a
life apart from God and turn to him for help when our resources seem to be
exhausted. Our anxieties and fears are fed by this utter lack of awareness of
our intimate link with God through Christ.
Our mind with its stream of thoughts, emotions and feelings, subject to changing circumstances, keep us in the illusory world of an artificial separation between our impermanent self and God. Christmas invites us to break this separation and begin to live in faith the truth within. However, it does not in any way mean that we are free from the limitations of a contingent world of which our outer self is part. The gospel says: “She wrapped him swaddling clothes and laid him in manger because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke. 2: 7). It implies, therefore, that we too shall have to embrace various stages of sufferings in mind and body owing to their contingent nature. It is rightly expressed by Paul in his letter to the Romans: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pangs of childbirth even until now. Not creation alone, but even we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan in our innermost being, eagerly awaiting the day when God will adopt us as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:22-23).
Our mind with its stream of thoughts, emotions and feelings, subject to changing circumstances, keep us in the illusory world of an artificial separation between our impermanent self and God. Christmas invites us to break this separation and begin to live in faith the truth within. However, it does not in any way mean that we are free from the limitations of a contingent world of which our outer self is part. The gospel says: “She wrapped him swaddling clothes and laid him in manger because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke. 2: 7). It implies, therefore, that we too shall have to embrace various stages of sufferings in mind and body owing to their contingent nature. It is rightly expressed by Paul in his letter to the Romans: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pangs of childbirth even until now. Not creation alone, but even we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan in our innermost being, eagerly awaiting the day when God will adopt us as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:22-23).
“The
false self feels very inadequate”, says Fr. Richard Rohr, “and it is indeed
unstable in many ways, which is why we call it false! The false self is
overwhelmed with its own unworthiness, psychological wounds, and its passing
nature. Only the True Self can dare to believe the Good News of the Gospel,
which is actually God-in-you doing the believing. The small, separate self
cannot trust such immensity and giftedness.” We consider the Good news to be
too good to be true. We are not accustomed to think in terms of God’s mystery
being within us because He does not come easily within our perception. Neither
are we generally taught in the Church to perceive the presence of God’s mystery
within ourselves. Hence we have recourse to the Eucharist to sense that mystery
in profound worship of it or we find it in reading the Word of God. But
ultimately until the mystery of God is perceived within, it is hardly possible
to perceive it outside of ourselves.
We
can affirm, however, that God makes it possible to perceive him within
ourselves at some time or another. It can be through some experience of ours
that leaves us staggering with amazement. It may be a sudden realization of the
beauty of nature or the kindness of someone who is a total stranger to us or
escaping unscathed through a dangerous situation. We find ourselves awakening
to a reality that we had not thought was within our reach. Suddenly God opens
our eyes and we sense the hidden reality within ourselves.
Since
we tend to associate God with the extraordinary, it is only through divine
grace that we can discern the extraordinary in the ordinary. We require tuning
in to the wave length of God to recognize divinity in what is common place. But
once we begin to live in the level playing field with God it is easy to perceive
that we are in him. We begin to love ourselves as we can recognize ourselves being
loved by God. By the same standards it will be no strain to grant the same
inherent dignity to everyone around and love them as we love ourselves.
Christmas
means joy and peace to all who possess good will regardless of their religion,
race or culture because that was the assurance given by the angels. Good will
is openness to reality as it is and accepting it in its freshness without
resistance or desire for change. We stop judging by appearances that may be
good or otherwise. In fact God is more often found in persons and events that
are plain and common rather than special. This is amply clear to us in the
Christmas story. Around the crib of Bethlehem there was no angelic choirs
singing or ministering to Baby Jesus. Only the shepherds heard them. Mary and
Joseph had to use their good sense and the available help at hand to keep the
Baby warm and comfortable in the crude environment of a cave.
When the threat
from Herod came the message was conveyed to Joseph in a dream but no angel
transported the Holy Family to Egypt. “Joseph took the child and his mother and
left that night for Egypt” (Mathew 2:14). That is the ordinary life open to all
mortals. Everything looks very ordinary but the hand of God present in it makes
it special to the one who has faith. When it becomes the normal disposition of
a person, he or she is said to live the truth of the Incarnation. It is
authentic Christian life that looks forward eagerly to the Second coming of
Christ whenever it may come. Jesus came among us in lowly form so that we too
may discover him in humble situations of life when we realize our own
smallness. Christmas,
then, is not just an event that comes once a year but an ever present openness
of the human person to the Divine reality present in every name and form.//-
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| “Joseph took the child
and his mother and
left that night for Egypt” (Mathew 2:14).
|
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അങ്കേല മെർക്കൽ ജനാധിപത്യ ഫെഡറൽ ജർമ്മനിയുടെ പൈതൃകമിട്ടു കളിച്ചു കളിച്ചു നോക്കിയത്? അവർ ജർമ്മൻ ചാൻസിലർ പദവിയിൽ എത്തിയിട്ട് അധികം താമസ്സിയാതെ ഏതാണ്ടൊരു വ്യാഴവട്ടക്കാലം തികയുന്നു. ഇപ്പോൾ അങ്കേല മെർക്കലിന്റെ ചാൻസലർ അധികാരകാലത്തു ഫെഡറൽ ജർമ്മനിക്ക് ആകെ എങ്ങനെ എന്തെല്ലാം തരത്തിൽ മാറ്റങ്ങൾ ഉണ്ടായിട്ടുണ്ട് ? ലോക രാഷ്ട്രീയം പൊതുവെ അസ്വസ്ഥതയുടെ മൂടൽ പൊടിപടലങ്ങളിൽ ആകെ മൂടിയിരിക്കുകയാണ്. എന്നാൽ യൂറോപ്യൻ യൂണിയൻ രാജ്യങ്ങളിൽ ഏറ്റവും മുൻപന്തിയിൽ നിൽക്കുന്ന ജർമ്മനിയുടെ ജനാധിപത്യ ഭരണ കാഴ്ചപ്പാടുകളെ എല്ലാവരും ശ്രദ്ധയോടെ വീക്ഷിക്കുന്നു.
