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Christmas a reminder to give and show love to others
Church in the Community - Media Release in the Herald: 2nd December 2024
Source: TCN / Fr Lubabalo Mguda
Date Added: 2024-12-02
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Social upliftment,
Date Added: 2024-12-02
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Social upliftment,
Christmas decorations started appearing in late October in some malls in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
It would seem that, for some, Christmas is a time of buying our way out of depression with retail therapy to mark the end of the year – or perhaps the world.
This commercialisation of Christmas is a secularist distraction away from the reality of the world and the meaning of life.
It seems like a ploy to comfort, sooth and numb us as we confront the daily complexities and ambiguities of our lives. There is also the fact that Christmas is at the end of the year which creates a wild frenzy that suggests the end of things.
The end can also point us to new beginnings, which can be seen as a time of hope, a time of rebirth, a season of renewal and new ways of seeing.
Let us consider these questions that can ground the reality of the meaning of Christmas as we interrogate the many ways of looking at our world and its reality.
When we look around us, what do we see? When we put our proverbial ear is on the ground, what do we hear? Looking back into the past, what has happened? Looking far into the future, what do we see?
What is going in our world?
It is by taking into consideration individual perspectives, socio-cultural views, religious lenses and political filters and many other points of view that can help us understand the true meaning of things.
These perspectives, views, lenses and filters can either accentuate the negative or the positive, darkness or light, despair or hope, fear or love.
Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Son of God, on the day of traditional pagan celebration of the sun that brings heat and light to the universe.
Jesus Christ, the Sun of Justice, was born of the virgin Mary from Nazareth, who was a daughter of Anne and Joachim.
In Jesus of Nazareth, God became a human being.
The Evangelist John (1:14) puts it like this, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father.”
It is a celebration of the intuition that human beings have had from the very beginning of time that they belong not only to each other as a family, clan, tribe, nation and global community but that they also belong to a greater reality than life, a transcendence that is beyond them.
This transcendence, Christians call God the Father, who is not just beyond us, but is also among us and in us, in his Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, the human being has a divine spark and a touch of God or in the Old Testament language, is created in the image of God (cf Genesis 1:26).
Christmas reminds us that human life has an intrinsic value and dignity that comes from God. Being human matters, human life matters.
The human being in whatever leadership capacity – be it political, judicial, religious, as the head of a criminal gang - has no right to take the life of another human being.
We also do not have a right to exploit others.
When human beings are oppressed by others for their own convenience, the comfortable lives of the elite few will eventually collapse in the wars that will ravage the landscape of the future of humanity.
When human systems of governance and economic power are keeping others from realizing their true potential as children of God, then man-made poverty will lead to bloody revolutions.
We can avoid this suffering by living by the true spirit of Christmas year-round.
Christmas is a celebration of the goodness of humanity. Hence, the spirituality of Christmas includes gift-giving, inclusivity, family, friendship, reconciliation, forgiveness and generosity.
Christmas can be seen as a rebirth of humanity, because when God was born as a human being, humanity was raised up to its divine calling.
In order to make Christmas meaningful this year, let us not waste food or time.
Let us share the left-over food with those in need on the same day.
Let us not wait until the following day.
We can invite to our Christmas tables those who have been estranged from our family.
After our Christmas meals before the liquid Christmas celebration gets out of hand, we can go as a family to share our Christmas food with the homeless, the poor and marginalised.
Since opportunities of family table meals have become rare, let us make this year’s Christmas family meal count. Let us switch off our phones, and be present to each other as families, enjoying each other’s company.
The dinner conversations can be about reconciliation, forgiveness and the value of being human.
We can discuss new ways of how we can be humane and treat our domestic workers and gardeners as brothers and sisters with all their limitations.
Make this a Christmas with a difference, celebrating the birth of Jesus by valuing our fellow human beings.
A blessed Christmas to all of you!
Fr Lubabalo Mguda
Church of the Sacred Heart, Gqeberha
It would seem that, for some, Christmas is a time of buying our way out of depression with retail therapy to mark the end of the year – or perhaps the world.
This commercialisation of Christmas is a secularist distraction away from the reality of the world and the meaning of life.
It seems like a ploy to comfort, sooth and numb us as we confront the daily complexities and ambiguities of our lives. There is also the fact that Christmas is at the end of the year which creates a wild frenzy that suggests the end of things.
The end can also point us to new beginnings, which can be seen as a time of hope, a time of rebirth, a season of renewal and new ways of seeing.
Let us consider these questions that can ground the reality of the meaning of Christmas as we interrogate the many ways of looking at our world and its reality.
When we look around us, what do we see? When we put our proverbial ear is on the ground, what do we hear? Looking back into the past, what has happened? Looking far into the future, what do we see?
What is going in our world?
It is by taking into consideration individual perspectives, socio-cultural views, religious lenses and political filters and many other points of view that can help us understand the true meaning of things.
These perspectives, views, lenses and filters can either accentuate the negative or the positive, darkness or light, despair or hope, fear or love.
Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Son of God, on the day of traditional pagan celebration of the sun that brings heat and light to the universe.
Jesus Christ, the Sun of Justice, was born of the virgin Mary from Nazareth, who was a daughter of Anne and Joachim.
In Jesus of Nazareth, God became a human being.
The Evangelist John (1:14) puts it like this, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father.”
It is a celebration of the intuition that human beings have had from the very beginning of time that they belong not only to each other as a family, clan, tribe, nation and global community but that they also belong to a greater reality than life, a transcendence that is beyond them.
This transcendence, Christians call God the Father, who is not just beyond us, but is also among us and in us, in his Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, the human being has a divine spark and a touch of God or in the Old Testament language, is created in the image of God (cf Genesis 1:26).
Christmas reminds us that human life has an intrinsic value and dignity that comes from God. Being human matters, human life matters.
The human being in whatever leadership capacity – be it political, judicial, religious, as the head of a criminal gang - has no right to take the life of another human being.
We also do not have a right to exploit others.
When human beings are oppressed by others for their own convenience, the comfortable lives of the elite few will eventually collapse in the wars that will ravage the landscape of the future of humanity.
When human systems of governance and economic power are keeping others from realizing their true potential as children of God, then man-made poverty will lead to bloody revolutions.
We can avoid this suffering by living by the true spirit of Christmas year-round.
Christmas is a celebration of the goodness of humanity. Hence, the spirituality of Christmas includes gift-giving, inclusivity, family, friendship, reconciliation, forgiveness and generosity.
Christmas can be seen as a rebirth of humanity, because when God was born as a human being, humanity was raised up to its divine calling.
In order to make Christmas meaningful this year, let us not waste food or time.
Let us share the left-over food with those in need on the same day.
Let us not wait until the following day.
We can invite to our Christmas tables those who have been estranged from our family.
After our Christmas meals before the liquid Christmas celebration gets out of hand, we can go as a family to share our Christmas food with the homeless, the poor and marginalised.
Since opportunities of family table meals have become rare, let us make this year’s Christmas family meal count. Let us switch off our phones, and be present to each other as families, enjoying each other’s company.
The dinner conversations can be about reconciliation, forgiveness and the value of being human.
We can discuss new ways of how we can be humane and treat our domestic workers and gardeners as brothers and sisters with all their limitations.
Make this a Christmas with a difference, celebrating the birth of Jesus by valuing our fellow human beings.
A blessed Christmas to all of you!
Fr Lubabalo Mguda
Church of the Sacred Heart, Gqeberha
Source: TCN / Fr Lubabalo Mguda
Date Added: 2024-12-02
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Social upliftment,
Back to News IndexDate Added: 2024-12-02
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Social upliftment,
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