The True Meaning of Christmas
As I approach another Christmas, my 84th to be exact, I’ve been persuaded to do some serious thinking about the meaning and importance of Christmas. For those who deem themselves to be Christians, Christmas is the most sacred of Holidays. It is a time to reflect and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
Scholars believe that Jesus had a short life, living only around thirty years. But his miraculous good works, profound intellect, and kindness demonstrated a wisdom beyond his years and a love for humanity from children to the poor, the ill and the outcasts. What Jesus consistently demonstrated was how a human being could live leading with love and kindness. Jesus spent his time doing good and advocating for peace, love, kindness, forgiveness, sharing, and understanding. He also stood against snobbery, hate, selfishness, greed, and unkindness.
He healed the sick, fraternized with the poor and downtrodden, forgave evildoers, and insisted that people love one another, their neighbours and their enemies! Jesus’s crucifixion resulted from the political elite’s refusal to accept the truth that he preached. In his time, like today, a message and messenger of love, were threats because, without hatred and division political forces cannot divide us into warring camps based on class, nationality, sex, and gender, and other aspects of our identity.
Jesus died one of the most brutally painful, agonizing, and slow deaths imaginable, crucifixion, the cause of which in many cases was asphyxiation and cardiac arrest. Yet, in the midst of and in spite of his unfathomable suffering, he managed to call out “Father, forgive them for they know not what they’ve done.” I must reiterate this unimaginable point, that as Jesus was dying, he prayed for his murderers!
It is my belief that many of us have lost our way and a course correction is desperately needed. I invite us all to take the opportunity during the Holiday season to reflect and ask ourselves, what would Jesus be doing and saying about our current wars, strife, hatreds, violence, demeaning and belittling behaviours, and petty grievances?
As I move towards the second half of my eighth decade, I ponder with gratitude the meaning of a God who offered us his son as a beacon of light and hope for humanity, knowing (as God of course would) what humans would do to Jesus in the end. What kind of love is this? Can our human minds even grasp its depths?
Many in our human family are suffering from homelessness, addictions, loneliness, fleeing from abuse, oppression, and wars, or being trafficked and assaulted. Others are being unfairly targeted, rounded up, beaten, detained, imprisoned, and deported, evils facilitated by hateful racist rhetoric designed to divide us. This is happening while an elite few at the top plot about how to control markets, lobby politicians, deregulate industries, and hoard wealth. Is something not terribly wrong with this picture?
During this wonderful season, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, I invite people everywhere, regardless of their religious persuasion or faith, to think seriously about the teachings of Jesus Christ and the true messages of the season. Let us not close our eyes to the suffering of our fellow humans and may we remember that each human being is one of God’s precious and unique creations. What would change if we all looked around for opportunities to do good?
Regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof, it is undeniable that the world would change for the better if we followed Jesus’s example. As many of us prepare to celebrate his birth, let’s take the time to truly contemplate what that really means.