I have
been struggling with this question for quite a long time whether we should
celebrate Christmas or observe it. I
find identical differences in the meaning of these two words. If we take it as an event then we should
observe it only for a day which in fact most of us are doing. But if we understand it as the beginning of a
process of salvation planned by God, then we should celebrate it all the days
long throughout the year. When Christ
was born, his birth brought joy of salvation not only for a day, supposedly 25th
December, and became irrelevant afterwards.
The
context in which Jesus was born is in no way different from ours. There was hue and cry, chaos and confusion,
rustle and bustle, terror and horror, hatred and harassment, killing and
murder, oppression and exploitation and what not. Having been born into such a situation, Jesus
made a difference. God sent him into the
world “not to be its judge but to be its savior” (John 3:17b). Jesus came to seek (to restore) and to save
what was lost; the lost values and virtues, the lost humanitarian aspect of
life, the lost spirituality, the lost love and the lost relationship between
the whole creation and the Creator.
When we
look at things and people around us, don’t we hold our breath to see injustice,
unrest, oppression, domination, violence and killings and wish that Jesus
should be born again to reconcile human being with God? Definitely in Jesus, a savior was born many
hundred years back and taught us how to save people from different kinds of
sufferings. God so loved the world that
once He had already sent His only begotten Son into the world as its savior who
came and did enough to save us from death (spiritual) and decay (moral). His love was so pure and perfect that he was
born not to live for his pleasure but to die for our sins and suffering.
His
second coming, which we are reminded only on Easter Sunday and not on
Christmas, will be the coming of a ‘Judge’.
As young people, God has given us many opportunities and
responsibilities to establish His kingdom on earth. He has called us to live a life that is good,
pleasing and perfect. He has called us
not to conform to the standard set by world but to transform it for the better
living of His creation. To put it
contextually, we have been called to work for the holistic salvation of human
being. Have we been faithful to that
calling? If yes, let us celebrate this
Christmas or else observe it as a religious event.
Have a
celebrative Christmas!
Kasta Dip
(Published in December 2006 issue of NICR)
