Christmas Night Luke 2:1-14
when I go to the church in the Christmas Night every year I am surprised to see the beautiful Christmas decoration. The beautiful Christmas tree, crib, Christmas stars, decorated alter, beautiful candles, beautiful melodies, etc. All these create a good mood to open our hearts for the message of Christmas.
In this happy mood of Christmas I look back to my visit to Krippana in Losheim on the boundary between Germany and Belgium. Krippana is the biggest crib exhibition of Europe. There we see different types of cribs in the exihibition hall and a living crib outside the exhibition hall. These more than 100 different cribs origin from America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Every country or every region has made the crib in the background of their culture and tradition with figures in their own boldly shape and colour of skin. The difference in the bodily shape and colour of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, which is unique in every crib, fascinated me.
Besides the fascinating differences and beauty, I fount out two common factors in these cribs. First, in every crib Jesus Mary and Joseph are depicted in the surroundings of hey, strow and in the presence of animals and shepherds. We experience unthinkably simple situation in the birthplace of Jesus.
In comparison to our present understanding of the birth of a child we could say that the birth of Jesus in a crib is inhumane. This common fact of the simplicity of the crib in every depiction of these more than 100 cribs express the uniqueness of the birth of Jesus. The greatest and the highest became the lowest and simplest. The more the great, the more the simple.
The second thing that fascinated me is the figures in the crib. In every crib from different continents, regions, languages, colours and cultures, the figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph are depicted in such a way that these figures express in their face satisfaction, happiness and serenity although the artists did not know each other and nobody told them to do so. That is for me the work of the Holy Spirit.
I think, in spite of the tensed situation Mary and Joseph were glad and happy to find at least this cattle stable as birth place of Jesus.
This happiness of Mary and Joseph we experience in Christmas and proclaim.
Wenn we greet our relatives and friends and wish them a happy Christmas, we experience and communicate this happiness of Mary and Joseph. When we decorate our houses and surroundings or prepare a good Christmas meal, we experience and communicate this happiness of Mary and Joseph that inspite of every tension, we have sufficient reasons to be satisfied and happy.
The opposite of happiness is sadness, disappointment and grief. When we hear about persecution of the Christians, terrorism, bombing the gathering of the minority communities that express the paradox and contradiction in our society which is a really sad.
On the one hand we experience the great joy and proclaim it in the simplicity and modesty of the stable of Jesus. We experience and practice in being purely Christian, which is expressed and experienced in the love, compassion and mercy that we practice. On the other hand we experience in different parts the world attack on the Christians by some funatic groups who fight against the Christian culture of love and compassion. On the one hand it is reasonable and correct to respect every culture, every faith and every tradition, on the other hand it is also reasonable for the Christian to stick together, to proclaim their faith to keep and maintain their customs and traditions and to act against the persecution of faith and culture; not with weapons, but with intelligence and reason. We do not need to get frightened and nobody can take away the joy and freedom we experience which comes from the Lord. We are united in the culture and faith, which impart love and compassion.
Like Mary and Joseph who were not afraid on their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem or on the way to Egypt we could be confident about the escort of God and react reasonably. No fear could overwhelm us to live and proclaim our faith. Our Christian assignment is not only to live and proclaim our faith, but also to live, proclaim and spread our Christian culture of love and compassion to every human.
The angel told the shepherds on the Christmas night: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.“ There may be reasons for many of us not to celebrate Christmas. But there is no great joy that that Christ is born. Therefore we should celebrate Christmas what ever be the problems we face, sickness, or break of relationships. Today is Christmas, we are happy about it, we celebrate it. We think on this Christmas night the old people in our surroundings also, the sick, the lonely, and motivate them to be happy and to celebrate because God is with us, Emmanuel. He is our hope, our saviour. we praise him, Halleluja!
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS