Fight for the true meaning of Christmas

Our country and the entire Christian world celebrate today the happiest day of the year for the whole of Christendom. We join in the festivities despite personal trials, family challenges, our country’s corruption scandals, which are unprecedented in their gravity, and a world plagued with so many violent conflicts. We give pause to all these tribulations and engage in the merriment of gift-giving, twinkling lights, festive decorations, and cheery songs.

We indulge in revelry, ignoring the budget-bursting expenses, health-unfriendly eating binges, blood-curdling traffic jams, and the many other snags and hitches that the season of frenzy brings. Christmas is the time of the year when we reach a crossroads where two parades intersect in our lives, and where we hold control over the traffic lights. We turn on the red light to momentarily stop the passage of troubles, difficulties, and misfortunes that cross our lives. Next, we turn on the green light to allow the flow of merriment that we contrive for ourselves, or that is contrived around us.

Christmas is the time of the year when we wade through all the troubles that surround us, and we are at our most forceful best in fighting for our piece of happiness. It reminds us that we have the ability to create a space and time for our own happiness, if only we will it, and not allow ourselves to be consumed by all the gloom and doom in this world.

We all have personal tribulations that amount to crosses that we bear and that we slug around, no matter how materially and professionally successful we have become in life. Even as a race, humanity faces an increasingly stark future. An era of climate catastrophes consisting of supertyphoons, uncontrolled wildfires, record-breaking heat waves, and constantly worsening air pollution, among others. There are the wars and brewing conflicts that have the potential of conflagrating in wider regions and ominously, even worldwide. These include the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, the saber-rattling of China directed at Taiwan, the war provocations of the United States against Venezuela, and the rolling genocide in Palestine perpetrated by Israel and the smoldering resentment it creates in the Muslim world, to name a few.

There’s the resurgence of dangerous leaders who foment fascism, racism, religious intolerance, and gender inequality in societies and entire countries. There’s the economic crisis created by leaders who misuse their country’s economic or military dominance to feed their insatiable appetite for greed and oppression. There’s also the callous exploitation of labor and the environment by rapacious business titans.

Even more dangerous than the visible exploitation and injustices that are on the rise is the insidious attack on the very core of our humanity. This is taking place with the spread of a philosophy that views empathy as a human weakness. This mindset practically calls for mankind to discard its gene of compassion, even if this human DNA is responsible for making us exceptionally different from the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s a perverse gospel being preached to extol the strong in their abuse of the weak. We hear this from the pulpit of Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth. We see this from the actions of US President Donald Trump, the most powerful leader on Earth, from the way his government has been treating the helpless, the oppressed, and the different.

Jesus was born under the shadows of these kinds of leaders. He came to life on Earth under the most inhuman conditions, by being born in a shelter meant for animals. Stripped of the thick crust of myths and fables, it must have been a smelly, dirty, and cold livestock shed. Jesus lived and died preaching empathy, understanding, and care for the poor and the oppressed. His ways were in total contradiction and virtual condemnation of the words and actions of the repressive leaders of his time. He went on to teach compassion and kindness to criminals, prostitutes, and other outcasts of society.

As we celebrate Christmas, we should remember the very person whose birth we commemorate today. Like all of us, he went through life wading through a sea of oppression and inhumanity. Like all of us, he fought to bring forth comfort, peace, and happiness. The difference is that he did so not for himself or his family, but for all of mankind.

As we honor the birth of Jesus today, may we strive to bring happiness not only for ourselves and our families, but for our neighbors, countrymen, and fellow humankind, regardless of race, religion, and status in life. May we celebrate his birth by fighting for a world that shows empathy for the helpless, the oppressed, and the different.

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