A Blessed pandemic Christmas!
A Blessed pandemic Christmas!
So, how do we keep Christ in a pandemic Christmas? With the original Christmas, Christ assumes our humanity to make us share in His divinity, making us re-discover God in our human relationships, in our marriage and family and in our work. This is when we transform faith into life. We sublimate our ordinary human activities into a ministry we do for God. Thus, we encounter the divine in the human. During this pandemic, we have to emphasize this Incarnation-based theological truth. We need to recognize God’s presence in others in this time of difficulty. Our human outreach is as important as our pious practices that relate more to God than others.
Our outreach program should be at the heart of our mission to encounter God in others, especially those in need. Behind the joy in giving our own share for the Christmas Hampers is the story of needy families with suffering children. As church, we have to afford to spend on God’s poor, even with our current financial struggles. As in the past years, we are committed to sponsor the Feed the Hungry dinner this coming June 13.
Indeed, this Christmas is so different from previous Christmases. But this Christmas can be so like the first Christmas… The “unspeakable power of a baby born in straw poverty” (Bono of U2) should remind us of the poverty of the original Christmas. It is in poverty that God can speak to us in our emptiness and vacancy for Him. The original Christmas reminds of Christ’s poverty as He empties Himself of His divinity to share in our humanity.
We usually reckon the Christmas story with the gentle scenery of the Baby Jesus in the manger with shepherds, angels and kings with exotic gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh in the background. But there is the other side of the Christmas story that can relate more to us as we deal with this pandemic difficulty and challenge. Like the pangs of birth, the Christmas story was marred with bloody circumstances and a history of violent events, courageous acts and difficult decisions. In a very real way, we can relate to our present difficulties and challenges the other side of the Christmas story as we search the light in the shadows of our dark experiences… A complete approach to the Christmas story is about appreciating more not only its gentleness, peace and joy but also its aspects of fear, insecurity and violence. Christ’s birth into our world does not save us from the harsh, ugly and dark realities of our life. But it equips us with the grace to face our fears and frustrations in the faith that love can overcome death.
We pray for a Blessed Christmas, a celebration that transforms our lives with God’s love and presence.